Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 10.djvu/162

* HOLBEIN. 140 HOLBEIN. Holbein the Elder also excelled ns a portrait IHiiiitcr. iiiul liis rare j^ift for rliarai'tcrizalioii is apparent especially in the numerous head studies, mostly in silver point, distributed in various col- lections, ainon<; which those in Herlin. Copen- hagen, and Basel are the ridicst. The museum at Basel also possesses a numl)cr of .sketches for his religions paintings. His brother Sim.SMiXD ( ?-1.540) first appears on the ratebooks of .Xugshurg in l.">(>4, and in 151!) removed to Hern, where he died, making his nephew, Hans the Younger, his heir. There is very little doubt that he assisted the elder master in several of his most important works, although no single picture e.nn be traced to him directly. — .Vsibkosii s (c.l4n4-c.ir)10), son and pupil of Ilans the Klder, was horn in -Vugsburg, and, with his brother. Hans the Younger, was sent to Basel about 1515, when botli were en- gaged cliielly in designing title-pages, initials, and other illustrations for books. In 1517 he was admilteil into the guild 'Zum llimniel,' and acquireil the freedom of the city in the year fol- lowing, hut all trace of him is lost after 1519. The museum at Basel preserves three authenti- cated paintings by him: "Christ Crowned with Thorns" and two "Bust Portraits of Boys." bc- sieip- zig, 187:1-70). HOLBEIN, Hans, the Younger (1407-154.3). A GcniMii painter and designer, one of the chief masters of the German Renaissance. He was a son of Hans Holbein the Elder, and was born at Augsburg, where he studied with his father and with Hans Burgkmair. Two of the works which he probably painted in his father's workshop survive: .a "Madonna" (1514). in the JInseum of Basel, and "Clirist Dragged to the Crucifi.xion," in the Oallery at Karlsruhe. Both resemble the work of his father, to whom the latter picture has also been ascribed. About 1515 we find Holbein at Basel, where he and his elder brother Ambrosius had probably come to make illustrations for books: Basel was then an important centre of the book trade. Here Hans was introiluced into the classic world, espe- cially through his association with Beatus Rhe- nanus, corrector for the prinl<'r Erobcn. This influence is revealed in the table-plate in the Museum of Zurich, which he paint<'d for the family Baer, with scenes of hunting, fishing, and knightly tourneys, and in his eighty-three pen drawings for Erasmus's Praise of FoUy. which are in the Museum of Basel. These drawings are a curious mixture of the coarse style of the fif- teenth century and the finer finish of the six- teenth. They show a great master at the l>egin- ning of his powers. The Musctim of Basel also contains other characteristic works of 1510: a sign for a school-master, on which are painted two school scenes; the portraits of Burgomaster Jakob Meyer, of his wife, and of Hans Herbst, the painter in whose workshop Holbein worked before he became a member of the painters' guild. In 1517 he went to Lucerne to decorate the facade and interior of the house of Jakob Herten- stein. These paintings have perished, but the original pen design in the .Museum of Basel shows that the fa<;adc was decorated with classical sub- jects, completely in the style of the sixteenth. century, and that he was influenced by the study of Manlcgna's prints. In 1518 he probably trav- eled in Lombardy, visiting .Milan. The inlluence of the Lombard school may be seen in Holl)ein's treatment of form after 1518, and in his "Last Supper" (Basel Museum), which clos<'ly re- sembles Leonardo's masterpiece at Milan. In 1510 Holbein entered the painters' guild of Basel, and in the following year he became a citi- zen. During the next few years he decorated the facades of a number of houses at Basel, chief among which was the "Ilans zuni Tanz." of which the original pen design is in the Museum, with arihiteetural decorations, and a representation of peasants dancing. He also began his extensive decorations of the coumil chaml>er. with antique historical subjects representing civic virtue and justice, and with allegorical figures. On the or- gan doors of the Minster of Basel he painted, in brown monochrome, grandiose figures of saints and angels singiiig. .mong his panel pictures is an altarpiece of "Passion Scenes" of great dra- matic power and fine elTects of light and shade, and the "Dead Body of Christ" (1.521), of strik- ing, almost repulsive realism — all in the Miiseuin of Basel, .mong other works of this jxTiod is the ".Madonna with Saints I'rsus and Martin" (1522), in the Museum of Solothurn. Holbein's best-known work is the "Madonna of Burgomaster Meyer," painted in 1,525 or 1520, which hohls the same rank in <!erman painting as the "Sistine Madonna" in Italian. The original is in the Callery of Darmstadt, the Dresden ex- ample having licen proved to be an excellent copy by a XcllxTlanilcr of the seventeenth cen- tury. Especially fine, in this picture, are the portraits of the kneeling Burgomaster and his family, and the nude figure of his youngest .son — a elierub worthy of Correggio. His portraits of this period include the refined face of Bonifazius .Xmerhach (1510), the first great German art collector, and three likenesses of Erasnitis. who was then a resident of Basel — two in profile, at Basel and in the Louvre, and a larger three-quarter view in Longford Castle. Holbein's mastery of female portraiture is >h(iwn in his two allegorical representations of Dorothea OITcnburg in the Basel Mus<>um — "The Lais Co- rinthiaca" (1.520), and another portrait in which she is represented with Cupid. At the same time IloUioin was occupied with other forms of design, . iong his drawings of the period are two adniiralile youths, one a pencil, supposed to represent Holbein himself, the other a chalk drawing in the Museum of Basel. One of his favorite subjects was the contemporary Ger- man "Lanzkncchte" (soldiers), in various actions and attitudes. To the same period belong his drawings of Baslcr female costumes, which may have been designs for actual use. His designs for glass-painting in the Basel Museum include ten wash drawings of "Passion Scenes." the equals of the painted series mentioned above. Madonnas and other Itiblical subjects, and coats of arms — all in beautiful Renaissance framing. As a designer for woodcuts Hr)ll)ein is second only to Diirer. He left over three hundred blocks, the best of which were cut by Hans Liit7/>lhurger. His illustrated Luther's Bible, and his "Histori-