Holbein, Hans
Holbein, Hans
(The Elder Holbein)
A German painter; b. at Augsburg about 1460; d. at Isenheim, Alsace, in 1524. Except that he was born in the Bavarian centre of art, culture, and commerce, and that his father, Michael, was a well-to-do leather-worker, little is known of his early life. He may well have studied in the studio of the great Schongauer, and some authorities state that he married the daughter of the engraver and painter Brickmaer (von Stetton). He is registered among the citizens of Ulm in 1499; he was established in Frankfort in 1501 and subsequently lived and painted at Basle and Alsace. These wanderings may have been occasioned by financial embarrassments, for he was poor and in debt all his life. Holbein’s early work shows that he followed van der Weyden and Memling. Then the van Eycks and the Cologne school influenced him for more than a decade. In this, his “dry’ period of painting, his subjects were chiefly from the Passion, and, although they exhibit crude grouping and colour, and a naïve technique, they nevertheless evince a profound sentiment of sincerity and devotion. He was one of the finest painters, if not the first, in Germany to avoid angles, lines, and sharp folds in his elaborate draperies. Augburg was on the high road between Germany and Italy, and Holbein, drinking deeply of Italian culture substituted the softer Southern elements for the precise and archaic German methods. He was one of the first to paint a Renaissance type of background, and to use architectural decoration in his pictures; and in this he became a master. This emancipation of painting (1512-22), begun by the elder Holbein, was to be completed by his son, Hans. Thus the elder Holbein was a pioneer and leader in the transformation of German art. The majority of the great critics incline to this opinion, while others aver that his poverty and debts were due to his long and notorious resistance to Italian influence. He was a spirited and robust, if sometimes vulgar, painter, a man of imagination and power, possessing a splendid capacity for depicting character. His merits have long been overshadowed by the fame of his son.
The earliest important work of the elder Holbein is a “Madonna and Child” (1492) now in the Moritz Kapelle, Nuremberg. In 1493 he became well known by his altar-piece in Weingarten Abbey; but the most famous of his works is the altar of the basilica of St. Paul (now in the Augsburg gallery), for it contains a portrait of himself and his two sons, Ambrose and Hans; and the father is pointing with pride to the young Hans as if predicting the lad’s future greatness. At Frankfort, in 1501, Holbein painted a large and important altar-piece for the Dominicans and for some time after seems to have won pecuniary success. Forged documents and false inscriptions for a long time ascribed works to the son which modern authorities ascribe to the father. To-day the elder Holbein enters into his own. The beautiful “Conception”, painted in 1512 (Augsburg gallery) and the altar-piece of St. Sebastian (Munich), a triptych with the “Annunciation” and Sts. Elizabeth and Barbara occupying its wings, are two notable pictures recently proved to be by the elder, and not the younger, Holbein. The St. Sebastian altar-piece is generally regarded as his greatest work. His “Madonna Enthroned” is preserved in the Germanic Museum, at Nuremberg, while two portraits by him (probably a man and wife) are in the Hampton Court collection. The sketch books of this prolific artist, preserved at Berlin and Copenhagen, are filled with portraits, chiefly in silver-point, the noteworthy faces therein being the Emperor Maximilian, his fool, Kuntz von der Rosen, the Fuggers, and other men conspicuous in commerce and at Court. He and his brother Sigmund painted together — how long, and on what pictures, cannot be discovered; but Hans always signed the work. He gave young Hans his first lessons, and endowed him with virile force and immense capacity for characterization. About 1520 Holbein was in Alsace and sought refuge with the monks of Isenheim. After his death it is recorded that his son claimed his brushes, paints, and sketch books from the monastery.
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WORNUM, Life and Works of Hans Holbein (London, 1867); CHAMBERLAIN, Hans Holbein (London, 1902); WOLTMAN, Holbein und seine Zeit (2nd ed., Leipzig, 1876); WITT, German and Flemish Masters in the National Gallery (London, 1904).
LEIGH HUNT Transcribed by Rebecca J. M. Morris
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VIICopyright © 1910 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, June 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Holbein, Hans
an eminent Swiss painter, designer, and wood-engraver, was born at Basle in 1498, although some think he was a native of Augsburg. He was the son and scholar of John Holbein, who settled at Basle, and resided there during the rest of his life. At the age of fifteen Hans manifested great abilities, and painted portraits of himself and his father, which were engraved in 1512. He was invited by an English nobleman to visit England, but declined the invitation. Several years afterwards he formed an intimacy with Erasmus, and painted his portrait. The latter persuaded him to go to England, and gave him a letter to Sir Thomas More. On arriving in London. he sought out that nobleman, who received him with kindness, giving him apartments in his house. One day Holbein, happening to mention the nobleman who some years before had invited him to England, Sir Thomas was desirous of knowing who it was. Holbein replied that he had forgotten the title, but thought he could draw his likeness from memory; and this he did so strongly that it was immediately recognised. This peer was either the earl of Arundel or the earl of Surrey. Holbein was introduced by Sir Thomas to Henry VIII, who immediately took him into his service, assigning him apartments in the palace, with a liberal pension.
On the death of Jane Seymour, Holbein was sent to Flanders to draw the portrait of Christiana, duchess dowager of Milan. He painted in oil, distemper, and water-colors. He had never practiced the last until he went to England, where he acquired the art from Lucas Corneli. There are but a few historical works by Holbein in England. The most important is that in the Surgeons’ Hall, of Henry VIII Granting the Charter to the Company of Surgeons. At Basle.are eight pictures of the Passion of Christ; and in the library of the. University a Dead Christ, painted on a panel, in 1521. “It has been doubted whether the celebrated Dance of Death was originally designed by Holbein; but this has been occasioned by confounding the sets of prints of the Dance of Death engraved by Matthew Merian with the wooden cuts by Holbein, after his own designs, the originals of which are preserved in the public library at Basle.” As a wood-engraver, Holbein is said to have executed some works as early as 1511, and he engraved a great many wood-cuts for the publishers of Basle, Zurich, Lvons, and Leyden. The most important of these are a set of wood-cuts, entitled, The Dance of Death, which, complete, consists of fifty-three small upright plates, but is seldom found above forty-six. There are also, by Holbein, a set of ninety small cuts of subjects from the Old Test., which were published at-Lyons in 1539. He made a number of designs from the Bible, which were engraved and published at Leyden in 1547. Holbein died at London in 1554. For a list of his works, see Spooner, Biog. Hist. of the Fine Arts, s.v.