The Mentor, No. 48, Two Early German Painters: Dürer and Holbein

Two Early German Painters
DÜRER AND HOLBEIN

By FRANK JEWETT MATHER, Jr.

Marquand Professor of Art and Archeology, Princeton University

THE MENTOR

SERIAL No. 48

DEPARTMENT OF FINE ARTS

MENTOR GRAVURES

ALBRECHT DÜRER

A great painter gives us much more than skilfully arranged lines
and colors. These are only the symbols by which we may share
his vision of the world. What we must try to find in any work of
art is the soul of a great man. This is particularly true of so serious an
artist as Albrecht Dürer (doo´-rer) of Nuremberg, who was born in 1471,
a little before the outbreak of the Protestant Reformation. In that movement
he shared heartily, but without bitterness for the Catholic Church,
in which he had been bred. He was a broad-minded Christian, a thoughtful
and thorough craftsman. In the little drawing he did of himself at
thirteen we see the serious, worried lad already a competent draftsman.
We may see him again in the Madrid portrait, the confident young painter
of twenty-seven; at Munich, the mature and dignified artist of thirty-six;
and finally, in the haggard woodcut profile, as a man grown old with
unabated ardor of spirit.

The accent of study and concentration is present at every stage.
He painted so carefully that such work did not pay him. The engravings,
of which he did about 100 with his own hand, brought him in a comfortable
fortune. They are marvels of faithful observation and of minute
execution. When old age and illness made painting and engraving difficult,
he wrote books on the proportions of the human body and the art of
fortification. We must not expect
a man of such stern and
high ideals to be charming.
He may, however, have many
true things to tell about life
and character that it behooves
us to know.

THE ENGRAVINGS

MICHAEL WOHLGEMUTH

By Dürer

At fifteen Dürer was apprenticed
to the painter and
woodcutter, Michael Wohlgemuth.
The lad saw the advantages
of the new process of
woodcutting and copperplate
engraving, by which a design
might be multiplied. Then
the good wife Agnes, whom he
married by parental arrangement
at twenty-three, came
to be a thrifty saleswoman for
the prints. The work was of
the most taxing kind, being all
done under a magnifying lens.
When the firm lines had been
graven in the copper they were filled with ink, which under heavy pressure
from a roller press was transferred to paper. The lines of Dürer were
so fine and closely spaced that the whole print got a charming pearly
quality which is well represented in our reproductions. Bible stories, the
life of Christ and the Virgin, popular customs, portraits of his learned
friends, and a strange series of plates having a moral meaning may be
specially noted. In 1513 and 1514 he engraved
what are called the four master plates, two of
which are reproduced.

THE KNIGHT, DEATH, AND THE DEVIL, by Dürer

The Knight, Death, and the Devil. Upon a
splendid steed an armored knight rides through a
rocky defile, high above which is seen his goal, an
imposing castle. Forms of horror beset the traveler.
The horse sniffs impatiently at a skull in
the road. King Death himself, mounted on a jaded
nag, holds up an hourglass. The Knight’s hours
are measured. Behind the horse stalks a swinelike
form, which may represent the lower temptations
that assail a warrior of the Lord. Regardless of these
nightmare shapes, the Knight
holds his restive horse in the
road. Fortitude has overcome
sin and fear of death. Such
seems the large, informing idea
of a picture which would be
exquisite if regarded merely as
minute delineations of forms
of rocks and trees, and textures
of hair and armor.

SAINT JEROME IN HIS STUDY, by Dürer

Saint Jerome in His
Study. In depicting the Cardinal
Saint, who in the late
fourth century translated the
Holy Scriptures into eloquent
Latin, Dürer may well have
wished to emphasize the enviable
serenity of the scholar’s
lot in contrast with the
perilous course of the Knight.
Everything in this study
speaks of peace and steady,
satisfactory endeavor. The
light shimmers upon wall,
floor, and ceiling like a blessing.
It seems as if no sight or sound of troublous or unworthy sort could
enter this scholar’s sanctuary. The skull and hourglass are no longer
symbols of dread. The saint is oblivious of the passage of time, and
looks forward to death as the opening of fuller knowledge. The elaborate
and beautiful details of the room assure us that this is no mere
dream of an idealist, but an actual place that a
student of the divine mysteries might inhabit. A
different kind of peacefulness pervades the small
engraving of the Hermit Saint, Anthony of Egypt,
behind whom rise the picturesque walls and roofs
of Dürer’s own Nuremberg.

THE ARTIST’S FATHER

By Dürer

THE WOODCUTS

The engravings are by Dürer’s own hand; the
woodcuts are copies of his designs by capable assistants.
As early as 1499 he had published the
impressive illustrations for the Revelation of Saint
John. For terror and ferocity the print representing
the four riders who begin the destruction
of mankind before the last day
has never been equaled. For twelve years
he worked at the designs for the Life of
the Virgin, and a large and a small series
of the Passion of Christ. One woodcut
from the Little Passion, Christ in Gethsemane
with the sleeping apostles, is reproduced.
He has used the small scale of
the plate to indicate a peculiar heartlessness
in the disciples calmly sleeping so
near their agonized Lord. The postures
of vehement prayer and of complete exhaustion
are affectingly truthful. The
basis of such designs is the artist’s own
pen drawing, which is pasted or traced
on a pear-wood plank. All the blank spaces are cut away with a
knife, leaving the lines in relief. This wood block may be set up with
type pages and printed on an ordinary press. It is thus better adapted
to book illustration than engraving, which requires special printing.

About 1511 Dürer reprinted the Revelation, and published the three
new books. They were justly popular, and from that time he painted
only when he pleased. The woodcuts, which faithfully represent drawings
made with a coarse quill
pen, will look rude to eyes
accustomed to the often
meaningless finish of modern
illustrations. It will require
patience to see how direct, sincere,
and vigorous is the expression.
With so coarse a tool
nothing can be left to chance
or smoothed down. Every
line must tell, and every line
in the Dürer woodcut does
tell its story of structure and
feeling. Dürer’s woodcuts
are as fine in their way as
his more popular engravings.

THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE

By Dürer

THE AGONY IN THE GARDEN

By Dürer

THE DESCENT FROM THE CROSS

By Dürer

THE PAINTED PORTRAITS

JOHN AND PETER

PAUL AND MARK

By Dürer.

From the first Dürer revealed
in portraiture an inflexible
curiosity as to form
and insight as to character.
The earlier portraits, those
of his master Wohlgemuth,
and of his own father, have
a speaking lifelikeness. But
the very endeavor to omit nothing and say everything with resolute
truthfulness makes some of the early portraits stiff and forbidding. This
defect is hardly noticeable in the three admirable portraits of his maturity,
which are our special theme.

They were all painted after his Venetian visit of 1506. There he saw
portraiture as faithful as his own, but softer and more agreeable. Open-minded
student that he always was, he readily learned the lesson. The
charming head of a young woman represents the fruits of this new experience.
With a comeliness that is by no means merely pretty, one gets
the sense also of character and of capacity. The tightly drawn hair, the
head held alertly a little forward,
tell of aggressiveness
with self-control, of perfect
physical and mental well-being.
It was such strong
mothers as this that bore the
men who in finance, manufactures, commerce, and scholarship made the little
city of Nuremberg famous. Initials on the bodice suggest that this may
be the wife Agnes, who was an efficient business partner and a terror to certain
easygoing friends. Firm yet minutely varied lines, modeling soft and
lifelike but also decisive,—such are the technical merits of this masterpiece.

DÜRER, by himself

In the Prado, Madrid.

Among Dürer’s portraits of himself, the head in which the master
gave himself the aspect of a Christ is the favorite of many people. The
workmanship is of extraordinary carefulness and beauty. Every detail
of the fur, of the flowing hair, of the powerful, slender hand, is there;
but the effect remains large. There is in the face a sense of dignity, reserve,
decision, and sympathy. Other portraits are probably much more like
Dürer as Nuremberg saw him. This presents his own ideal of himself as creative
artist, exemplifying a spiritual beauty that he ever strove to attain.
Despite an old inscription reading 1500, we must date this portrait after
that Venetian visit which brought to Dürer new power and self-confidence.

EMPEROR MAXIMILIAN I

By Dürer. In the Imperial Gallery, Vienna.

Efficiency was the trait Dürer most admired. His merchant friend
Hieronymus Holzschuher possessed this quality in a high degree, as his
portrait shows. He still directs toward an admiring world the bluest,
brightest, steadiest eyes ever painted. The silvery hair and beard glisten
like a halo before a blue sky.
The firm, thin lips under the
scant, well kept mustache
still tell of the sagacity and
persistence that won for
Hieronymus a fortune and
the mayoralty of a proud
city. Nor is this power and rectitude without kindness. One feels the living
presence of a man absolutely just, but also quick to see another man’s
side, and withal humorous. Of an old age not too frosty and wholly vigorous,
this picture is a most remarkable embodiment. That Dürer’s genius
is as marked in a slight sketch as in elaborately executed works, witness
the charcoal study which he did of his old mother just before her
death. Have a few lines ever told more piteously of resigned decrepitude?

THE FOUR APOSTLES

In his last years Dürer painted as a legacy to his native town the
stately figures of the apostles Paul, Mark, Peter, and John. Already
the Protestant movement which he held so dear was breaking up into
wrangling sects. Dürer wished to recall men to the founts of Christian
wisdom and unity. The apostles wear their grand robes with Roman
dignity. The heads are sharply distinguished by temperament. The
burning determination of Saint Paul is very unlike the excitability of
Saint Mark; the inward serenity of Saint John most unlike the careworn
pensiveness of Saint Peter. These are men to move a world.

On the 6th of April, 1528, he passed away, only fifty-seven years old,
but exhausted by constant effort. The great bankers, merchants, scholars,
and craftsmen of Nuremberg knew that a notable citizen had gone.
He had known familiarly Melanchthon and Luther. Raphael had been
glad to exchange drawings with him. His engravings and woodcuts were
admired throughout Europe. After four centuries he remains the finest exemplar
in art of the peculiar steadfastness and thoroughness of the German
race. Goethe, the greatest
of German poets, has written
the finest tribute to
Germany’s greatest artist:

HANS HOLBEIN

HOLBEIN’S WIFE AND CHILDREN

In Basel Museum.

PORTRAIT OF GEORG GYZE. By Holbein. In the Berlin Gallery.

HOLBEIN, by himself

At 25 years of age.

Whoever understands
the art of Dürer needs little
introduction to that of
Holbein (hole´-bine). Hans
Holbein was born in 1497,
when Dürer was just beginning
to be famous, at
the imperial city of Augsburg, which was merely a larger Nuremberg.
Holbein’s father was a painter, and the lad was early perfected in the craft.
By his seventeenth year he was working at Basel, where for some ten
years he practised book illustration, designing for metal and glass,
religious subjects, wall painting. Such versatility he renounced later
for the better paying branch of portraiture. In 1526 some German
merchants called him over to London. There he soon became court
painter to Henry VIII, and there he remained for the most part until
his death by the plague in 1543. He was one of the first of those cosmopolitan
portrait painters who follow their market, a homeless man,
separated from wife and children, a completely detached person. That
he was fitted for the part, the sturdy, confident portrait of himself shows.

As a painter Holbein was Dürer’s
superior, though inferior to him as
a man. Where Dürer set his bright
colors in rather harsh combinations,
Holbein worked out arrangements
of mosaiclike depth and brilliance.
Usually the background is pale blue,
green, or other solid tone, against
which the pale flesh tints, with crimson,
green, or black of the rich
costumes, glow like some precious
enamel. He is as accurate in his drawing
as Dürer, with less sense of effort.

STUDIES FROM LIFE, IN THE WINDSOR COLLECTION

By Holbein.

SIEUR de MORETTE, by Holbein

Holbein painted the profile portrait
of the scholar Erasmus about
1523. Erasmus was not merely very
learned but also a wit, and Holbein
has combined with the self-control
and concentration of the face a sense
of astuteness. The set lips would
readily break into a smile. The gentle and careful pose of the hands is
noteworthy. It is as if the great stylist caressed the paper to invite a
happy phrase. Very effective too is
the setting of the figure in the frame.
Everything forms a beautiful pattern.
Cut off the margin ever so little, and
the figure will seem out of balance.

DUKE OF NORFOLK, by Holbein

Finely composed again is the famous
Madonna of the Meier family.
The kneeling figures make the base
of a pyramid, the lines of which are
carried up by the Madonna’s cloak
and the Christ Child’s outstretched
hand. Perhaps the formal arrangement
and the stately niche are a little
out of keeping with the evident simplicity
of all the people. In fact, the
greatness of the picture lies mainly
in its vitality, in the sense of strength
and devotion it conveys. Holbein,
like Dürer, conceives the Virgin simply
as a German mother, none too
intelligent, and rather ungraceful,
but wholly wrapped up in the Divine
Child, who is after all much like an ordinary German baby. The gentleness
of Mary’s clasped hands is one of the many beautifully studied details.

A consummate example of his work is the Jane Seymour of 1536.
In the third wife of Henry VIII Holbein had only a moderately good
subject. She seems a stolid person. Yet a certain shrewdness is also in
the face. The setting in the frame is perfect, and the gold-embroidered
robes and jewelry are done with a quiet dexterity that simply takes one’s
breath away. The sketch for the portrait is preserved. Holbein always
made a careful crayon drawing for every portrait, introducing slight tints,
or even writing down the color of hair, eyes, etc. From such a study,
which was made in a few hours, the picture was painted. We have then
the most lifelike portraits known to art painted
with the model absent. Today artists plague
themselves and the sitter to poorer purpose.
By utmost concentration upon the original
drawing, Holbein seems to have omitted all
unimportant or merely general traits of his
subject, fixing upon the few that were really
characteristic. Moreover, he stood upon his
first reading of the character.

At any rate, these splendid sketches are
the finest flower of Holbein’s genius. Scores of
them are preserved at Windsor Castle. I reproduce
only the rather vain and weak face of
the poet, warrior, and dandy, the Earl of Surrey.
I must repeat that Holbein was less of a
man but in some ways more of an artist than
Dürer, unqualifiedly superior as a mere painter.
Dürer was full of profound ideas about religion and life. His work is truly
a criticism of the life of his age. Holbein had virtually no ideas, and
genially accepted his world as very good to live and paint in. He
brought not a great mind to his art, but a tolerant temper, a most discerning
eye, and a magnificently sure hand.

HOLBEIN, by himself

SUPPLEMENTARY READING

LIFE OF ALBRECHT DÜRER (Translated
from the German.)—By Moritz Thausing.
The standard biography.

ALBRECHT DÜRER—(“Classics of Art”).
Complete collection of reproductions of Dürer’s
works in half tone.

ALBRECHT DÜRER—By Lina Eckstein.
(Popular Library of Art.) A concise but readable
epitome of the main facts.

ALBRECHT DÜRER—By T. Sturge Moore.
(Scribner’s.) Somewhat fuller and of excellent
literary quality.

ALBRECHT DÜRER—By Frederick Nüchter.
(Macmillan.) Especially recommended as a
biography and for excellent cuts of good scale
at a moderate price.

HANS HOLBEIN AND HIS TIMES. (Translated
from the German)—By A. Woltmann.
The standard biography.

HANS HOLBEIN—By G. S. Davies.
A recent and thorough work, in folio, with
many illustrations.

HANS HOLBEIN—(“Classics of Art”).
Useful collection of half tone cuts of all his
work at a moderate price.

Editorial

In the letters that we have received
from members of The Mentor Association
we have had appreciation in full measure
from readers of mature minds. The young
people were yet to be heard from.

It meant a great deal to us, therefore,
to receive a letter from a teacher
concerning the work that she was doing
with The Mentor. She had under her
charge a class in High School, the pupils
varying in age from 14 to 18 years. The
teacher has been using The Mentor regularly.
She distributes the pictures and the
pupils read Monday’s Daily Reading on
Monday, and so following, day by day
throughout the week. On Friday afternoon
she gives an hour to The Mentor.
The article in The Mentor is read aloud
to the class and also the Saturday Daily
Reading. The teacher then reviews the
subject with the pupils and asks them
questions. In this way, she tells us, her
class thoroughly absorbs each weekly
subject in turn. Since receiving this letter
we have made inquiry, and we find
that a number of teachers are doing the
same thing. We call the attention of
teachers generally to this. It is a plan
worth trying.

So much for the reading matter and the
profit to be obtained for children therefrom.
We have said nothing about the
pictures, and surely it is not necessary
to lay stress on the appeal made to children
by beautiful pictures. And it is not
merely a dull, crude interest that it
arouses. It is in many cases an intelligent
taste, that readily responds to cultivation.
A writer in one of our daily papers called
attention recently to an impressive scene
that may be observed every Saturday
morning at the Metropolitan Museum.
It is a gathering of school children, who
are assembled with open eyes and ears
and eager and hungry minds to see and
hear and know the things of beauty and
of curious interest in the museum. These
pupils are invited by the Metropolitan
Museum itself, and under the sponsorship
of The School Art League of New York.

When this was started the Museum
people, it is said, doubted whether it
would work. They were afraid perhaps
that the school children would feel that
they were being “done good to” and
wouldn’t come. As a matter of fact, however,
those who came first told the others
that the visit was simply wonderful, and
more and more came, until now you may
see 600 children at the Metropolitan on
Saturday morning, hanging on the lips of
the people who are telling them about the
art of the pictures and the stories that go
with them. It is a most inspiring sight
for those who are interested in education.

Most children are born with a certain
understanding of the beautiful and a longing
for it. They “want to know,” and
they listen eagerly as long as anyone can
tell them something that is interesting as
well as informing. That is the attitude of
mind that The Mentor addresses itself to,
whether it is the mind of a child or of a
grown-up. We have had plenty of assurances
that The Mentor has interested and
helped older readers. It is most gratifying
to learn of the benefit that The Mentor
is bringing to young readers—to have
word from our readers that the children
in the school or in the home are enjoying
The Mentor. One reader tells us that he
is taking The Mentor particularly for his
children. “I want them to grow up with
it,” he says. That interests us deeply.
We want The Mentor to be a real factor
in the life of the home, and a real part of
the education of the young generation.

PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG WOMAN—Dürer

ONE

Albrecht Dürer was born on May 21, 1471, at
Nuremberg, Germany. His father was named Albrecht
Dürer also. He was a goldsmith, who at the
age of forty married his master’s daughter, who was
only fifteen years old. In spite of the difference in their ages,
the marriage was a happy one, and was blessed with eighteen
children, of whom Albrecht was second.

As a boy he showed himself more worthy
of an education than any of his many
brothers, and was apprenticed to a goldsmith.
But he wanted to become an artist,
and, being his father’s favorite son,
his wish was granted. So at the age of fifteen
he was apprenticed to the principal
painter of Nuremberg, Michael Wohlgemuth.
Here, as one of the artist’s assistants,
he turned out little sketches of religious
subjects, and some woodcuts for
book illustrations. He had a hard time, as
his companion apprentices were a rough
crowd, and took great delight in making
young Dürer suffer.

In 1490 he finished his apprenticeship,
and began his “years of travel.” These
lasted until 1494. He visited Colmar,
Basel, Strasburg, and other German cities.
Shortly after his return in July, 1494, he
married Agnes Frey, who was a good wife
for him. She was an excellent housekeeper
and a shrewd business woman. They had
no children.

But Dürer had not been married more
than a few months when he decided to
make a journey to northern Italy to complete
his artistic education. He was very
poor, and the great expense of such a trip
made it necessary for him to leave his wife
behind. He did not stay away long.
Sometime in 1495 he returned to Nuremberg,
where he lived without change for
the next ten years.

Like many another artist, Dürer had his
early struggles against poverty and indifference.
Painting did not pay; so he
turned to wood and copper engraving, and
in this way made a fair living.

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COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.

PORTRAIT OF HIMSELF—Dürer

TWO

Dürer visited Venice in the fall of 1505, and stayed
there until the spring of 1507. The main reason for
this journey was the commission to paint a picture
for the Germans living at Venice. His fame had
spread greatly, and as his countrymen wanted to dedicate a
picture in the Church of Saint Bartholomew they chose him to
paint it. The picture that Dürer did for
them was the “Adoration of the Virgin,”
better known as the “Feast of the Rose
Garlands.” Emperor Rudolf II later got
hold of it. It was carried to Vienna upon
men’s shoulders, as a thing of great value.
It is now, greatly injured, in the monastery
of Strahov at Prague.

At Venice, Dürer was treated with great
respect and admiration. He held a high
position there; although most of the Italian
artists were jealous of him. But in
spite of his desire to remain in Italy for the
rest of his life, he returned to Nuremberg
in 1507.

All over Europe, Dürer was now recognized
as a great painter. All the living
master artists of the age were his friends or
acquaintances. The great Raphael felt
honored to exchange drawings with him.

But his intimate life was not so happy.
It has been said that his wife plagued him
to death with her meanness. It is undoubtedly
true that, although Agnes was
a good housewife and manager, she made
the artist overwork himself for money.
For years her name was held up among the
Germans as an example of an unworthy
wife. In none of his letters does Dürer
speak of her with tenderness or affection.

Beyond this the artist’s life was uneventful.
The years from 1507 to 1511
he spent in painting. The three following
he devoted mostly to engraving on both
wood and copper. Copper engraving especially
took up much of his time. At the
same time he resumed etching. He was also
interested in mathematical and anatomical
studies on the proportions and structure
of the human frame.

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HIERONYMUS HOLZSCHUHER—Dürer

THREE

The last period of Dürer’s life began in 1520. Emperor
Maximilian was his friend and patron; but
his death in 1519 stopped all the things that Dürer
was doing for him. So in July, 1520, the artist, with
his wife and her maid, set out for the Netherlands to secure a
continuance of the patronage and privileges granted during the
lifetime of Maximilian. Everywhere he
was handsomely received. Throughout
all his travels, which lasted a year, he was
entertained by the best and most intellectual
society of his time.

On July 12, 1521, Dürer reached home
again. His mind was now filled with
schemes for religious pictures; but he produced
comparatively little. One reason
for this was the bad state of his health.
Another was that he gave more and more
of his time to mathematical study, which
he considered important. His most famous
picture of this time is the portrait of
Hieronymus Holzschuher at Berlin.

At Nuremberg, in 1525, was published
his book on geometry, and in 1527 appeared
a work on fortification. But his
health was failing. He had caught a fever
in the Low Countries, from which he never
fully recovered. On the night of April 6,
1528, he died, so suddenly that there was
not even time to call his dearest friends to
his side.

He was buried in a vault belonging to
his wife’s family, in the cemetery of Saint
John, at Nuremberg. Luther, the great
reformer, said of the famous artist in a
letter, “As for Dürer, assuredly affection
bids us mourn for one who was the best of
men; yet you may well hold him happy
that he has made so good an end, and that
Christ has taken him from the midst of
this time of trouble, and from greater
troubles in store, lest he, that deserved
nothing but the best, should be compelled
to behold the worst. Therefore may he
rest in peace with his fathers. Amen!”

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ERASMUS—Holbein

FOUR

Hans Holbein came of an artistic family. Indeed,
he is usually known as Holbein the Younger; for his
father, Hans Holbein the Elder, was a painter of
great ability himself. His uncle also, his mother’s
father, and most of his family were painters and decorators in
the city of Augsburg, Germany, where Holbein the Younger
was born sometime toward the end of the
fifteenth century.

No one knows exactly the year in which
Holbein first opened his eyes. In those
times they did not keep such an accurate
record of births and deaths as they do
nowadays. So, unless a man was the son
of a king or some other important person,
it did not matter much when he was born.
Still, we are probably right when we say
that Hans Holbein was born in 1497.

Those were the days of Augsburg’s prosperity.
All its magnificence is gone now;
but then it boasted of many merchant
princes, men of distinction, and patrons of
the fine arts. It was a favorite city of Emperor
Maximilian himself. There was less
travel at that time than now, and consequently
the citizens of each town were
much more closely bound together. Civic
pride ran high. It was the period of the
Renaissance, that great period of awakening
to the appreciation of fine things in
art and literature. So of course Augsburg
had its Guild of Painters, and Holbein the
Elder was a member of it.

Hans was the favorite son, and both he
and his brother Ambrose were educated to
be artists in their father’s studio. There
they worked until 1515, when Hans and
Ambrose journeyed to Basel, at that time
a center of learning and art.

There Holbein’s chief occupation was
the drawing of title pages for books. Erasmus,
the great scholar, is said to have been
his patron, and helped him in many ways.
Another powerful patron was Jacob Meier,
the first commoner who ever held the office
of burgomaster of Basel, and under whose
rule the reformation of the city laws was
peaceably carried out. He was the original
of Holbein’s first portrait painted in
Basel, and for him, eight or nine years later,
was painted the famous Meier Madonna.

PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1, No. 48, SERIAL No. 48
COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.

THE MEIER MADONNA—Holbein

FIVE

In 1517 Holbein left Basel on a journey of two years.
No one knows exactly where he traveled. It is
said that he did not go to Italy; but others maintain
that he must have spent some time there. Anyway,
in 1519 he returned to Basel, and in the same year his brother
Ambrose died. The next year, 1520, was an important one in
the artist’s life. Erasmus returned to
Basel, and Holbein became a citizen of the
town, and was admitted to the Guild of
Painters. Also at this time he married.
His wife was a widow with two children.
She was some years older than the artist,
and seems to have been somewhat of a
shrew. It is said that it was her tongue
that drove Holbein to England in the
summer of 1526. More probably it was
the usual desire,—to make more money
than he was earning at Basel.

At that time art was having a hard
time in Germany. The Reformation—when
Luther and his followers broke away
from the Roman Church—forced painters
to do almost anything for a living. Stained
glass designing, furniture decoration, and
book illustration made up most of Holbein’s
commissions.

It was at this time also that he drew his
famous Dance of Death series. These
drawings are not dated; but they must
have been made sometime before 1527, for
in that year the engraver, Hans Lützelberger,
who was doing that part of the
work, died, leaving his work unfinished.
Another wood engraver able to render the
action and expression of the little faces
could not be found. So for ten years their
publication was delayed.

The Dance of Death is a highly moral
set of pictures, depicting the work of the
great Reaper in all fields of life. In the
various pictures Death is shown taking
grim satisfaction in the consternation of
his victims. Pope, emperor, preacher,
nun, rich and poor, young and old, all
are unready for his coming. All vainly
resist. The artist must have worked
hard and carefully over these engravings.

PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1, No. 48, SERIAL No. 48
COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.

QUEEN JANE SEYMOUR—Holbein

SIX

Holbein arrived in London toward the end of 1526.
It is said that the English called him, colloquially,
“Master Haunce.” He went immediately to Chelsea,
where Sir Thomas More lived. Erasmus had
given him a letter of introduction to this famous statesman
and author, and the artist was made welcome, and given many
commissions for portraits. Holbein remained
at Chelsea throughout his first
visit to England. Sir Thomas More introduced
him to many of the greatest men of
the day.

At this time England was just beginning
to feel the first influence of the Renaissance.
London was still a dirty, noisy
town of the Middle Ages. The houses
were made of wood and mud, and built
with the earth as a flooring. The streets
were narrow and crowded, with the houses
and little shops set close together. From
the highest to the lowest, London was far
from being the center of fashion it was to
become not many years later.

Consequently, when the dreaded plague
broke out in 1528, London was just the
kind of city in which it would spread most
rapidly. So Holbein gave up his work in
England and returned to Basel. There he
finished the decorations for the town hall,
which had been begun in 1521. But he
was not happy there. All his friends were
either dead or had left the city. So about
1531 he returned to London.

This time he needed no introduction.
His reputation was established in England.
The merchants of the Steelyard,
the great German trading company established
on the banks of the Thames, gave
him plenty of work to do, and he did it
well. These portraits contain some of
Holbein’s most careful work.

In 1537 he painted the great portrait of
Henry VII with Elizabeth of York, and
Henry VIII with Jane Seymour, for the
privy chamber of the Palace of Westminster.
This picture was destroyed in
the fire that burned the palace in 1698.
In 1543 the plague broke out again in
England.

A will, presumably made in October,
1543, by Holbein, was found in London
some years ago. And not long after making
this, in November, the great artist
died, probably of the plague. His death
was surrounded by mystery. Not even
the place of his burial is known for certain.
It was either in the church of Saint Andrew
Undershaft or Saint Catharine Cree.
His death, in the prime of his active life,
was a great loss to the world; but his
work survives, and will live forever.

PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1, No. 48, SERIAL No. 48
COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.