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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_

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

THE MENTOR

SERIAL No. 48

[Illustration]

DEPARTMENT OF FINE ARTS

    MENTOR GRAVURES

    PORTRAIT OF HIMSELF          Dürer
    PORTRAIT OF YOUNG WOMAN      Dürer
    HIERONYMUS HOLZSCHUHER       Dürer
    ERASMUS                    Holbein
    MEIER MADONNA              Holbein
    QUEEN JANE SEYMOUR         Holbein


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

[Illustration: 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.

[Illustration: 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.

[Illustration: 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.

[Illustration: 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.

[Illustration: THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE

By Dürer]

[Illustration: THE AGONY IN THE GARDEN

By Dürer]

[Illustration: THE DESCENT FROM THE CROSS

By Dürer]


THE PAINTED PORTRAITS

[Illustration: 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.

[Illustration: 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.

[Illustration: 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:

    Wholly unsoftened and unquibbled,
    Naught prettified or vainly scribbled,
    The very world thou shalt descry
    As seen by Albrecht Dürer’s eye--
    Her sturdy life and manhood strong,
    Her inward might enduring long.


HANS HOLBEIN

[Illustration: HOLBEIN’S WIFE AND CHILDREN

In Basel Museum.]

[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF GEORG GYZE. By Holbein. In the Berlin
Gallery.]

[Illustration: 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.

[Illustration: STUDIES FROM LIFE, IN THE WINDSOR COLLECTION

By Holbein.]

[Illustration: 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.

[Illustration: 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.

[Illustration: 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.




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_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.




[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG WOMAN--DÜRER]




_DÜRER AND HOLBEIN_

_The Young Artist_

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.

    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.




[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF HIMSELF--DÜRER]




_DÜRER AND HOLBEIN_

_The Middle Years_

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.

    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.




[Illustration: HIERONYMUS HOLZSCHUHER--DÜRER]




_DÜRER AND HOLBEIN_

_Last Days_

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!”

    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.




[Illustration: ERASMUS--HOLBEIN]




_DÜRER AND HOLBEIN_

_The Young Artist_

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.




[Illustration: THE MEIER MADONNA--HOLBEIN]




_DÜRER AND HOLBEIN_

_The Middle Years_

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.




[Illustration: QUEEN JANE SEYMOUR--HOLBEIN]




_DÜRER AND HOLBEIN_

_Last Days_

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.





End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mentor: Two Early German Painters,
Vol. 1, Num. 48, Serial No. 48, by Frank Jewett Mather

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