CHAPTER VIII

PORTRAITS OF ERASMUS AND HIS CIRCLE

Portraits of Erasmus and Ægidius by Quentin Metsys—Copy of the “Erasmus” at Hampton Court and the original in Rome—Portraits of Erasmus by Holbein sent to London—The Longford Castle “Erasmus” and copies of it—The Louvre portrait, and the study for it at Basel—Holbein’s journey to the South of France—Drawings of the sepulchral effigies of the Duke and Duchess of Berry—The Greystoke portrait and the version at Parma—The Basel roundel—Woodcut portraits of Erasmus—Portraits of Froben—Melanchthon—Holbein’s drawing of himself at Basel.

THE portraits painted by Holbein prior to his departure from Basel to England were not numerous, even when allowance is made for the probable disappearance or destruction of several of which no trace now remains. There are less than a dozen in all, even when the three different versions of Erasmus are included. The Burgomaster Meyer and his wife, Benedikt von Hertenstein, Amerbach, Froben, Erasmus, and his own portrait almost complete the list, to which may be added the two versions of Magdalena Offenburg as “Venus” and as “Lais,” and the portrait at the Hague now said to represent his wife shortly after he married her. Considering the mastery he had already displayed in this branch of art, it is extraordinary that he did not receive more commissions for portraits from his fellow-citizens. He found a good patron in Erasmus, however, who was always ready to sit for his likeness. He was painted by several well-known artists, and employed Holbein on more than one occasion. He presented several of these portraits to friends and supporters in England and elsewhere, and as he had many admirers who were anxious to possess one, Holbein’s original pictures of him were copied a number of times both during the philosopher’s lifetime and afterwards.

Although Erasmus paid his first visit to Basel in 1513 for the purpose of making the acquaintance of Froben, who was about to publish several of his works, including his edition of the New Testament, and renewed this visit on several occasions, sometimes remaining there for months at a time, he did not make the city his permanent home until 1521. Both during these earlier visits and after he had settled in Basel, he made Froben’s home his own. This house, “zum Sessel,” was in the Fischmarkt, but after Froben’s death in 1526, Erasmus moved to the house of Froben’s son, “zum Luft,” now No. 18 in the Bäumleingasse, and it was in this latter house that he died in 1536. He was attracted by the freedom and independence of the life within the city, and the opportunities it afforded both for quiet study and daily intercourse with many learned men, and also by the number and fame of its printers and their presses.

[Sidenote: PORTRAITS OF ERASMUS AND ÆGIDIUS]

The earliest portrait of Erasmus of which we have a record is the one painted by Quentin Metsys in Antwerp in 1517, which formed the left-hand side of a double portrait or diptych, of which the other half contained the portrait of Peter Ægidius, the learned traveller, and town-clerk of Antwerp,[364] to whom the _Utopia_ was dedicated, and whose garden was selected by More as the scene in which Raphael Hythlodæus told the imaginary story of that island city. It was painted as a joint-gift from Erasmus and Ægidius to Sir Thomas, and the two portraits were hinged together, and sent over to England. Several letters in the correspondence of More and Erasmus have reference to this present. The painting was delayed in the first place by the serious illness of Peter, and then by indisposition on the part of Erasmus. “I was well enough,” Erasmus tells More, “but some fool of a doctor prescribed for me a couple of pills for purging my bile, and I, still more foolishly, followed his advice; my picture had been previously begun, but, from the physic I took, when I came back to the painter, he declared that my features were not the same, so that his work is delayed for a few days until I become more alive.” The portraits were finished by the 16th of September 1517, and sent to More, who was then at Calais, in charge of Erasmus’ “famulus,” Peter Cocles. More’s letter of thanks, dated October 6th, expressed the greatest delight with the gift, and contained a Latin poem in honour of the portraits, in which they were both minutely described. In a postscript he spoke in admiration of the way in which Quentin had imitated his (More’s) handwriting on the letter which Peter holds in his hand.

These two portraits no longer hang together, and until quite recently all traces of the “Erasmus” had been lost. The “Ægidius” is now in Longford Castle, in the possession of Lord Radnor, and with it hangs a portrait of Erasmus; but the latter is not by Metsys, but by Holbein. At what period the original pair were parted is not known, but the two in Longford Castle were purchased at Dr. Meade’s sale in 1754, the first Lord Folkestone giving 105 guineas for the “Erasmus,” which was rightly sold as by Holbein, and 91 guineas for the “Ægidius,” also described as by the same painter; and for many years both portraits were regarded as the work of Holbein. Dr. Meade placed Latin inscriptions on the frames, in which the names of Erasmus, Ægidius, and Holbein were joined together. In more recent years the authorship of the “Ægidius” has been rightly ascribed to Metsys, while Holbein’s signature, and the date 1523 on the “Erasmus” prove conclusively that it is not the original companion-half of the diptych painted in Antwerp in 1517, further proof of this being afforded by the fact that both subjects are represented looking to the spectator’s left, instead of towards one another, and that the “Erasmus” is painted on a considerably larger scale than the other, which would not have been the case had the portraits been intended as a pair. The matter was finally cleared up by the late Mr. John Gough Nichols.[365] Ægidius[366] is represented in a fur coat, holding in his left hand a letter addressed to himself in the handwriting of Sir Thomas More,[367] and his right touching a book which is inscribed “Antibarbaroi” in Greek capitals. An ivory sand-castor and a gold cup and cover are on one of the shelves at the back, which are covered with books. There is a replica of it in the Antwerp Museum, which differs slightly in a few of the details, and is either a fine contemporary copy or from the hand of Metsys himself, though until quite recently it was still officially described as a portrait of Erasmus by Holbein.[368]

[Sidenote: THE “ERASMUS WRITING”]

Until a year or two ago all traces of the original “Erasmus” by Metsys had disappeared, but Herman Grimm, Woltmann, and H. Hymans all identified a picture at Hampton Court as a reduced copy of the original. This is the “Erasmus Writing” (No. 594-331), a small half-length, turned to the right, but with both eyes seen. He is writing in a book which lies on a desk in front of him. Other books are on a shelf at the back, with the titles inscribed on the edges of the leaves, all of them works by Erasmus published before 1517. Mr. Ernest Law[369] suggests that it is identical with the picture in Charles I’s catalogue described as “Some schollar without a beard, in a black habit and a black cap, looking downwards upon a letter which he holds in both hands, being side-faced, less than life; which was sent to the King by his Majesty’s sister, by Mr. Chancellor, Sir Henry Vane, Lord Ambassador from the King to the King of Sweden, painted upon the right light—done by Cornelius Vischer.” The poorness of the execution, the indistinctness of the lettering on the books, and the utter gibberish of the words which Erasmus is writing, betray the hand of some ignorant copyist, though enough of the wording can be traced to show that the philosopher is engaged in setting down the title and first words of his commentary on St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, which was begun in 1517.[370] There is a second copy of this portrait in the Amsterdam Museum; and in the 1904 edition of the Amsterdam Catalogue (p. 200), a third example was first described, which is now generally regarded as the work of Metsys himself and the missing half of the diptych. It is in Rome, until recently in the collection of the late Count Stroganoff, and was in the possession of Count Alexander Stroganoff as early as 1807. It is slightly smaller than the “Ægidius” at Longford Castle, but has evidently been cut down, as the height of the heads as seen against the shelves at the back is the same in both pictures. Metsys represented the two friends as though seated in a single chamber. Erasmus is placed on the left, facing the right, and engaged in writing, and Ægidius is on the other side of the room, looking up with More’s letter in his hand, and pushing forward his own book of travels as though about to present it to the Englishman. The same bookshelves run across the background in both portraits.[371] The picture has been recently presented by Count Stroganoff’s heirs to the Corsini Gallery in Rome.

Three or four years later Erasmus’ likeness was taken by Albrecht Dürer, who met him during his tour in the Netherlands in July 1520. Dürer appears to have made two drawings[372] of him at this time, and some years afterwards, in 1526, he engraved his head from memory, with the aid of one of these two studies. This engraving[373] by no means equals Holbein’s several portraits of the scholar, either as a likeness, or in its subtle expression of character. Erasmus, writing to Pirkheimer, said that it was not at all like him, but that this was not surprising, as he had greatly changed in five years.

[Sidenote: THE “ERASMUS AND FROBEN” DIPTYCH]

There is no direct evidence to prove that Holbein painted any portrait of Erasmus before the year 1523, though it is very possible that he did so. Perhaps the earliest may be the one mentioned by Remigius Faesch, who infers, in his manuscript life of the painter, that Holbein once painted a double picture of the friends Erasmus and Froben.[374] It is said that after the sudden death of the latter in 1527, from injuries caused by a fall on the pavement, Erasmus obtained the two portraits, and had them hinged together, as a perpetual memorial of their great friendship. After the death of Erasmus in 1536 this diptych remained in Basel for nearly a century, and was then bought, about the year 1625, by Michel Le Blond, the well-known collector of works of art, for one hundred golden ducats, and shortly afterwards sold by him to the Duke of Buckingham. The Duke afterwards gave the panels to Charles I. On the back of the “Froben” portrait at Hampton Court there is pasted a piece of paper inscribed—“This picture of Frobonus was delivered to his M^t. by ye Duke of Buckingham [before he went to the] Isle of Ree,” the five words in brackets being now illegible. In King Charles’ Catalogue they are entered as, “The picture of Frobonius, with his printing tools by him, being Erasmus of Rotterdam’s printer and landlord at Basil. Done by Holbein”; and, “The picture of Erasmus of Rotterdam, in a high black frame; done by Holben, fellow to the aforesaid piece of Frobenius, painted upon the right light.” They were sold separately, after the King’s execution, by order of the Commonwealth, and fetched larger prices than almost any other pictures from the royal collection. They were valued at £100 each, and at that price were purchased by Mr. Milburne and Colonel Hutchinson respectively. They were returned to the royal collection at the Restoration, and in 1672 Patin saw them hinged together as they had been in earlier days. They are now in Hampton Court.

While in the possession of Charles I, or more probably Le Blond,[375] these two portraits were “restored,” and by no means improved. Four inches were added to the top of the “Frobenius” in order to make it a pendant to the “Erasmus,” and the backgrounds were repainted and altered by Von Steenwyck. The original background of the “Frobenius” was either plain or a simple room with a window, but has been changed to a lofty apartment with pillars and a paved floor, part of the original blue-green ground being left behind the head; in the “Erasmus” it has been turned into an elaborate arrangement of stone pillars and arches, resembling the gloomy interior of a church. Walpole states that Von Steenwyck’s name and the date 1629 are on the “Frobenius,” but this inscription cannot now be discovered. The latter is by far the finer work of the two.

The portrait of Froben, which most modern critics do not admit to be an original work, is described below. The companion portrait of Erasmus—No. 597 (324)—is certainly only a copy, and not a very good copy, of some original by Holbein, possibly the Longford “Erasmus,” to which it bears a close resemblance. It was accepted by Wornum as a genuine work of the early Basel period,[376] but modern criticism is unanimous in condemning its authenticity. Its only claim, and a very slight one, to genuineness is that it was formerly hinged to the portrait of Froben; but Mr. Ernest Law[377] throws doubt on the story that Erasmus himself had the two joined together, which he regards as a myth, and suggests that the joining was done by some picture-dealer in Basel after Erasmus’ death, or by Le Blond himself when he purchased them. In the Hampton Court picture[378] the scholar is represented at half-length, less than life, turned slightly to the left. He is dressed in the usual black coat trimmed with fur, and a black cap. The hands, excellently drawn, rest on a closed red-bound book in front of him. The original plain background, as already stated, has been elaborated and spoilt by Von Steenwyck. It is probable that the double portrait spoken of by Faesch, of which he had a copy, was not the original work of Holbein, and in that case the supposition, based on his manuscript, that at some unknown period in the history of the diptych the “Erasmus” was removed, and a copy substituted for it, is equally incorrect.[379]

Most possibly the picture now at Hampton Court was the one actually purchased by Le Blond in Basel, to whom it would be sold as a genuine work by Holbein. A still less probable supposition is that a change took place after the sale of the royal collection in 1650, when the picture was in the possession of Mr. Milburne, who, it is suggested, at the Restoration returned a copy in place of the original.

[Sidenote: PORTRAITS OF ERASMUS]

The first portraits of Erasmus by Holbein to which a date can be given are the Longford Castle example and the profile likeness in the Louvre, both of which were painted in 1523, probably towards the end of that year, when the artist was about twenty-six; and it is generally agreed that these are the two which were sent to England by Erasmus in 1524. In a letter to his friend Wilibald Pirkheimer at Nuremberg, dated June 3rd of that year, Erasmus says: “Only recently I have again sent two portraits of me to England, painted by a not unskilful artist. He has also taken a portrait of me to France.” That the painter to whom Erasmus refers was Holbein is proved by a passage in Beatus Rhenanus’ _Emendations of Pliny_, published by Froben in March 1526, and written in the previous year. In speaking of the most celebrated German painters of the day, he mentions Dürer in Nuremberg, Hans Baldung in Strasburg, and Lucas Cranach in Saxony, and concludes with Hans Holbein in Switzerland, “born in Augsburg, but for a long time a burgher of Basel, who last year painted, most successfully and finely, two portraits of our Erasmus of Rotterdam, which he afterwards sent into England.”[380] One of the two sent to England was a present to William Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, whose yearly pension to Erasmus was increased about this time. The latter wrote to Warham on September 4, 1524: “I hope that the portrait painted of me, which I sent to you, has reached you, so that you may have somewhat of Erasmus should God call me hence.” It is not known for whom the second portrait was intended. No reference to it is to be found in the numerous letters despatched to England by Erasmus in that year, addressed, among others, to Fisher, Tunstall, Wolsey, and the King himself. It was not, apparently, meant for Sir Thomas More, for he already possessed the portrait of his friend by Metsys, and it is not very probable that Erasmus would send him a second. Nor does More speak of it in his letters to Basel, although he is certain to have done so had he received so valuable a gift, for he was lavish in his praise and his thanks for the Metsys portrait in 1517. It has been generally supposed that the well-known letter from More to Erasmus, in which he speaks of Holbein as a wonderful artist, affords proof that Sir Thomas had seen one or both of these two portraits, and that it was of them he was speaking when he praised the painter’s skill. The date of this letter is given as December 18, 1525, in the published works of Erasmus, but Herman Grimm showed that it was incorrect, and altered the year-date to 1524, in which Woltmann followed him. This, however, is also an error. The real date of the letter is 1526, as is proved by the literary work of Erasmus mentioned in it; and it has, therefore, nothing to do with the two portraits sent over in 1524, but was written shortly after Holbein’s arrival in London, when More had made his personal acquaintance.[381]

It is impossible to say which of the two portraits of 1523 is the earlier in date. No doubt the preliminary drawings for both were made in the little room or study in which the scholar sat daily at work upon his own writings, or supervising the publication and correcting the proofs of other volumes issued by Froben, for whom he was then acting as a kind of editor-in-chief. In the Longford Castle example (Pl. 54)[382] Holbein has shown his sitter to the waist, turned to the left, the face seen in three-quarters. He is wearing his invariable dress of black lined with sable, and over it a dark cloak trimmed with black fur, and a black doctor’s cap over his grey hair. He gazes in front of him, with a half-smile in his blue eyes and on his fine, sensitive mouth. His hands rest on a red book placed on the table before him, on the gilt edges of which is inscribed, partly in Greek and partly in Latin characters, “ἩΡΑΚΛΕΙΟΙ ΠΟΝΟΙ ERASMI ROTERO—” (The Herculean labours of Erasmus of Rotterdam)—the end of the last word being hidden by the sable cuff of the cloak. The background shows on the left a flat, richly-ornamented pillar and capital of Renaissance design, and on the right a green curtain hung from a rod by rings, partly drawn aside, and revealing a shelf on which are three books and a glass water-bottle. On the cover of the book which leans against the latter is the date “MDXXIII.,” and on the edge of the same volume is a damaged couplet in Latin, now partly defaced, which J. Mähly, after supplying several missing words, read as follows:—

“Ille ego Joannes Holbein, en, non facile ullus. Tam mihi mimus erit quam mihi momus erat.”[383]

These lines, no doubt, were composed by Erasmus himself in praise of the artist. Traces of further inscriptions, now undecipherable, are to be seen on the edges of the other books. This work shows an extraordinary advance in Holbein’s powers as a portrait-painter when compared with even so fine a work as the “Bonifacius Amerbach,” painted four years earlier. The modelling of both head and hands is searching in its truth, and he rarely accomplished anything more perfect in the subtlety of its delineation of character, and in a realism without exaggeration or hardness of detail. We see the “little old man,” as Dürer described him when he met him in Brussels some years earlier, just as he was in reality, the marks of age on his strongly-lined face, and about the eyes something of the tired look of the scholar and bookman, but the face still stamped with mental energy, and a calm, tolerant, and dignified outlook on life. A faint smile lights up his features, as though satisfied both with his own accomplished work and with the world in which he was living. For penetrating insight, indeed, this portrait is almost unsurpassed. It shows that side of the character of Erasmus which is displayed in his familiar letters to friends, in his _Praise of Folly_, and his _Colloquies_, a gentle, genial sense of humour which sweetened his intercourse with his fellows.[384] A sheet in the Print Room of the Louvre contains a slight, almost obliterated, study for the head in this picture, but full face, and a masterly drawing for the right hand, full of character;[385] a second contains two studies of the left hand, and one of the right hand holding the pen in the Louvre portrait (Pl. 55).[386] In the catalogue of the Meade sale it was stated that the picture had been at one time in the Arundel Collection.[387]

VOL. I., PLATE 54.

[Sidenote: THE LONGFORD CASTLE “ERASMUS”]

This version of Erasmus was repeated and copied more than once, with slight modifications, during the lifetime of the sitter as well as after his death. Such versions are to be found at Turin, Vienna, and elsewhere, the best of which is the one in the collection of Mr. Walter Gay, in Paris;[388] while there are others, less closely following the original, such as the “Erasmus” at Hampton Court already described, which forms a pendant to the “Frobenius.” There is a fine portrait of Erasmus in Windsor Castle by George Pencz[389] of Nuremberg, a pupil of Dürer’s, which is evidently based on the Longford Castle picture, or a good copy of it,[390] which bears the artist’s initials and the date 1537, so that it was painted the year after the scholar’s death. It has a plain green background, on which the shadow of the head is cast, and part only of the clasped hands are shown. The dress closely resembles that worn by Erasmus in the Longford Castle picture. This portrait, though it lacks much of the character of the original which inspired it, reproduces many of its small details, including the peculiar patch of darkened skin between the left cheek-bone and the ear, which is to be seen in almost all Holbein’s portraits of him.[391] It was bought by the Duke of Hamilton in Nuremberg and presented by him to Charles I in 1652. It was No. 13 in Van der Doort’s Catalogue of that King’s collections. Everything indicates that the original picture of which this is a version was in England in 1537; but as there is no record of any visit paid to this country by Pencz, he must have worked, not from the Longford original, but from one of the variants painted about 1530, after Holbein’s return to Basel from England.

The portrait in the Louvre (Pl. 56)[392] is smaller than the Longford Castle picture. Erasmus is shown in profile to the left, about two-thirds the size of life, seated at a table, writing, his eyes cast down on the paper, which he holds in position with his left hand upon a book he is using as a writing-desk. In his right[393] is a reed pen. His dress is the same as in Lord Radnor’s picture, and his black cap almost conceals his grey hair. In the background on the left is a damask curtain of dark bluish green, with a pattern of trees and lions in sage green, and powdered with small red and white flowers; and, on the right, some wooden panelling. The inscription on the paper he holds is now quite illegible, but in the study for the picture, in the Basel Gallery, it is still to be plainly read, and shows that the scholar is setting down the title of the work upon which he was engaged at the time he was sitting to Holbein. It runs—

“In Evangelium Marci paraphrasis per D. Erasmum Roterodamium aucto[rem] Cunctis mortalibus ins[itum est].”

This is the heading of his paraphrase of the Gospel of St. Mark, upon which he was at work in 1523, and gives the date of the picture. The inscription on the Louvre portrait was undoubtedly the same.

VOL. I., PLATE 55.

VOL. I., PLATE 56.

[Sidenote: PORTRAIT OF ERASMUS IN THE LOUVRE]

This portrait, like the one in Longford Castle, is painted with the utmost perfection, in dark but warm tones; it almost surpasses the other both in colouring and in its mastery of expression. The features are firmly set, the sitter’s thoughts entirely concentrated on his work, so that he is oblivious to all else but the matter in hand. The drawing of the hands is masterly. The complexion is warm and healthy, and the eyebrows, unlike the hair, locks of which straggle below the cap, have not yet turned grey. This picture was once in the possession of the Newton family. On the back of the pine panel on which it is painted is pasted a paper memorandum, now partly destroyed, which runs: “Of Holbein, this ... of Erasmus Rotterdamus was given to ... Prince by Jos. Adam Newton.” In addition there is a red seal with the Newton arms and their motto, “Vivit post funera virtus,” as well as the brand of Charles I (C. R. surmounted by a crown), and of the French royal collection (M. R.—_i.e._ Musée Royal—also below a crown). King Charles afterwards exchanged this picture and a “Holy Family” by Titian with Louis XIII for Leonardo’s “St. John the Baptist,” through the medium of the French Ambassador, the Duc de Liancourt. After Charles’s execution the Leonardo returned to the French royal collections, being purchased at the sale by the French banker Jabach for £140, and presented by him to Louis XIV. In the catalogue of the Louvre by MM. Lafenestre and Richtenberger it is stated that the “Erasmus” was “painted for Sir Thomas More,” but this is mere conjecture, and probably not correct. It was engraved by François Dequevauvillers for the “Galerie du Musée Napoléon,” and etched by Félix Bracquemond about 1860. A facsimile of the first state of this fine plate was reproduced in the _Gazette des Beaux-Arts_[394] shortly after the etcher’s death.

The original study for the Louvre portrait, in the Basel Gallery (No. 319),[395] is painted in oil on paper, afterwards fastened down on panel. With the exception of a plain background, and some slight differences in the costume, it agrees in all points with the more elaborately finished picture. Erasmus is using a book bound in red as a writing-desk, which rests upon a second volume. The tablecloth is green. His upper lip shows several days’ growth of iron-grey hair. Although not so fine in execution, it is nevertheless a remarkable and lifelike study. The present plain green background, however, is not original. It had at one time a patterned tapestry hanging behind the figure, as can be seen in the woodcut taken from it by Rudolf Manuel in the Latin edition of Sebastian Münster’s _Cosmography_, published in 1550, which has an inscription beneath it referring to the portrait in terms of high praise, and stating that Holbein painted it from life.[396] It is described in the Amerbach inventory as “Ein Erasmus mit olfärb vf papir in eim ghüs H. Holbeins arbeit,” and it appears to have belonged to Bonifacius almost from the day it was painted. All evidence points to this oil-study being the third portrait mentioned by Erasmus in his letter to Pirkheimer of the 3rd June, 1524, which was taken by the painter into France. Bonifacius Amerbach was absent in that country, studying law at Avignon under Alciat, and afterwards at the University of Montpellier, for two years, from May 1522 to May 1524.[397] In his absence Erasmus sent him his own portrait as a present, and by the hands of the artist who painted it. If the date of the letter to Pirkheimer is correct, Holbein must have paid his visit to the South of France in the early spring of 1524. The letter to Pirkheimer, written in the beginning of June, states that the pictures had been sent to England and France “recently,” but, according to Woltmann, Amerbach was back again in Basel in May, before the date of the letter, so that the sequence of events becomes a little confused. It is, of course, possible that Amerbach received the portrait on the eve of his departure from Montpellier, and that he may even have made the journey home in Holbein’s company; while Erasmus may not have troubled himself to inform his correspondent that the portrait sent into France was already back again in Basel.

[Sidenote: VISIT TO THE SOUTH OF FRANCE]

Nothing is known of this journey undertaken by Holbein, but it is not at all likely that he set out solely as the messenger of Erasmus, for the set purpose of delivering the portrait to Amerbach. It is much more probable that the desire for travel was still strong in him, and that the spirit of adventure, combined with the wish to discover fresh fields for the practice of his art, may have sent him forth as a wanderer again. In this connection, Dr. Ganz points out the somewhat strange coincidence that at this very time, the 19th April 1524, his patron, Jakob Meyer, set out from Basel for Lyon, with a band of two hundred men, in order to join the French expedition about to proceed against Milan.[398] Holbein may have seized the opportunity of travelling with him, not necessarily as a fighting man, but for the sake of company on his journey. The route followed was probably through Besançon, Dijon, Beaune, Macon, Lyon, and down the Rhône to Avignon, Nimes, and Montpellier. In these cities he would see many fine examples of French Renaissance architecture, the influence of which, as already pointed out, can be detected in certain of his designs for glass-painting; and it is highly probable, also, that he must have had opportunities of studying to some extent the work of the Clouets and their school, with whose art, both in point of view and technique, his own had certain features in common, and that their portraits, with their enamel-like surfaces, and more particularly their lifelike and elegant portrait-studies in coloured chalks, must have made a considerable impression upon him.[399] Beyond such influences as these, to be seen in his later work, there is nothing to indicate such a journey, nor, if it were actually taken, for how long he was absent from Basel.[400] The scarcity of dated works between 1523 and 1526 may suggest a lengthy absence abroad, but this is more than counterbalanced by the fact that, with the exception of a couple of drawings, there is nothing from his hand, either portrait, or church picture, or wall decoration, so far discovered, which can be shown to have been carried out in France. It is possible, though not probable, that the greater number of the “Dance of Death” woodcuts, which were first published in 1538 at Lyon, were finished by 1523, and that Holbein, during his stay in that city, may have made arrangements with the Trechsels for their publication; but there is nothing to show that this was the objective of his journey. Moreover, everything seems to indicate that Holbein merely supplied the designs for these woodcuts to the engraver Lützelburger, and had no further monetary interest in them or their publication in which case his visit to Lyon need not necessarily have had anything to do with them.[401]

The two drawings to which reference has been made are in the Basel Collection, and are studies of two life-size sepulchral effigies of the early fifteenth century, in the cathedral of Bourges, representing the Duke Jehan de Berry, who died in 1416, and his wife, kneeling with hands clasped in prayer. In Holbein’s day the monument was still in its original position in the private chapel of the Dukes of Berry, afterwards pulled down, when the figures were removed to the ambulatory of the choir. Other parts of the monument are now in the local museum. Holbein’s masterly touch has vivified the somewhat stiff and formal attitudes of these kneeling figures, in which, however, can be seen the beginnings of that realism and individuality which formed so marked a characteristic of the work of a later period of sculpture. These two fine drawings,[402] of which that of the Duchess (Pl. 57)[403] is the more beautiful, have almost the appearance of being studies from life instead of mere transcripts from the stone, and this effect is heightened by the skilful use the artist has made of touches of red and yellow crayons to his black chalk drawings. The sharp features of the Duchess, with high forehead and pointed nose, seen in profile, are full of expression. She wears the costume of the early fifteenth century, with a high ruff and heavy gold necklace, her golden hair enclosed in a fine net, and surmounted by a diadem set with square stones and jewels. It is now only possible to compare Holbein’s truth of likeness to the original in the case of the statue of the Duke, for in that of the Duchess the head was broken off during the French Revolution, and was replaced by another some forty years later, lacking all expression, and with a royal crown instead of the ducal diadem.

These two studies, however, cannot have been made during Holbein’s visit to Southern France in 1524; the draughtsmanship of them points to a later period, when his art had reached its greatest pitch of perfection. The position of Bourges, too, in the very centre of France, was far distant from the route he would take to reach Montpellier. Nor can they be connected with his first journey to England in 1526, for on that occasion he passed through Antwerp, his direct route being down the Rhine; and he made use, no doubt, of the same waterway on his return to Basel in 1528. In all probability the visit to Bourges took place in 1538. In the late summer of that year Holbein went with Philip Hoby to Joinville and Nancy on Henry VIII’s business,[404] and took the opportunity of paying a visit of a few weeks’ duration to his family and old friends in Basel. On his return to England he is supposed to have taken his eldest son with him as far as Paris, where he apprenticed him to the goldsmith Jakob David, and from Switzerland Bourges would be on the route to the capital of France.[405]

VOL. I., PLATE 57.

After Holbein’s return to Switzerland from England in 1528 he painted Erasmus again. A number of versions of this third type exist, of which the finest are the small Greystoke portrait, which in 1909 passed into the collection of the late Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan, and the small roundel in the Basel Gallery. One of the versions, in the Parma Gallery, bears the date 1530. Erasmus had retired to Freiburg with Amerbach in 1528 in order to avoid the iconoclastic disturbances in Basel, and he must have given Holbein a sitting, most probably in that town, between 1528 and 1530. These later portraits closely follow the Longford Castle type as regards the pose and the position of the head, three-quarters face to the spectator’s left, and the details of the dress; but the sitter appears considerably older, and in every instance the background is a plain one.

[Sidenote: THE GREYSTOKE PORTRAIT OF ERASMUS]

The Greystoke picture[406] has every appearance of being a work from Holbein’s own brush. The masterly modelling, the fine and subtle draughtsmanship, the wonderful expression of the mouth and the still keen and brilliant eyes, are too good and too true to life to be the work of a mere copyist. The cheeks are more sunken and the face more heavily lined than in the portraits of 1523. The eyebrows are still dark, but the hair which straggles from below the black cap is white, and is drawn with all the minute care and delicacy with which Holbein always portrayed it in his portraits, and the stubble of a beard of a few days’ growth is also indicated with the touch of a master. The hands, resting on a narrow ledge in front of him, and half concealed by the deep fur cuffs of his gown, are not so good, and are much less expressive than was usual with Holbein. The picture is in a fine state of preservation, and the colour scheme is rich and harmonious, though the plain blue background has turned to a greenish hue in the course of time. Upon it, to the left of the head, is a small white label, with the inscription, “Erasmus Roterodamus,” which appears to be fastened to the wall with red wafers and a pin, like the label in the portrait of the Duchess of Milan. According to Sir Sidney Colvin,[407] both labels were probably the work of the same hand, and are of later date than the paintings. He suggests that the inscription on the “Erasmus” portrait was added to it when it was in the Arundel Collection.

On the back of the panel is an interesting inscription, written, according to the same authority, in a hand of not later date than 1530-50. It runs as follows:—

“Haunce Holbein me fecit Johanne[s] Noryce me dedit Edwardus Banyster me possidit.”

John Norris, or Noryce—the name was spelt in various other ways—was one of the minor officials of Henry VIII’s court, filling the part of gentleman usher, which he afterwards held under Edward VI and Queen Mary, dying in 1564 as chief usher of the Privy Chamber to the latter queen. Among other offices which he obtained was that of Controller of Windsor Castle. He was son and heir of Sir Edward Norris of Bray and Yattendon in Berkshire, and elder brother of that ill-fated Henry Norris, one of Henry’s close companions, who was involved in the tragic fate of Anne Boleyn. The inscription shows that at some time, probably during Holbein’s life, John Norris owned this portrait of Erasmus, and that he presented it to a friend named Edward Banister. According to Sir Sidney Colvin’s researches, this Banister was also employed about the Court. In 1526 he appears as a gentleman usher out of wages for the county of Hants, and in 1539 he was one of the representatives of the same county appointed to receive Anne of Cleves at Calais and escort her to England. The inscription on the picture was probably written by Banister himself.

This portrait may have been the one in the possession of John, Lord Lumley, son-in-law of Henry Fitzalan, twelfth and last Earl of Arundel of that creation. In the Lumley inventory of 1590 it is described as “Of Erasmus of Roterdame, drawne by Haunce Holbyn.” Among his other portraits by Holbein, Lord Lumley also possessed the full-length of the Duchess of Milan, and it is most probable that the label with the inscription was added to both portraits when in his collection. The “Erasmus” was afterwards in the famous collection of Thomas Howard, the great Earl of Arundel, from which it passed by bequest of Alathea, Countess of Arundel, to her grandson, Charles Howard, into that of the Greystoke branch of the Howard family, where it remained, at their seat in Cumberland, until its recent purchase by Mr. Morgan. The Earl of Arundel possessed two portraits of Erasmus by Holbein,[408] the second being the Longford Castle picture. While in this collection the Greystoke version was engraved by Lucas Vorsterman, a very excellent print, undated, in which the figure is in reverse of the picture.[409] It was engraved again, when in the same collection, by Andreas Stock, the plate being dated from the Hague, 1628. In this engraving the position is the same as in the portrait, which suggests that Stock merely copied from Vorsterman, and not from the picture itself. In the inscription at the foot of Stock’s engraving it is stated that the portrait from which it was taken was the one which Erasmus himself told Sir Thomas More he very greatly preferred to the one of him by Albrecht Dürer; but the statement appears to have no real foundation in fact. Whether the portrait was sent to England by Erasmus in charge of Holbein when he returned to England in 1532, as a present to some friend or admirer, or whether the artist brought it over in the ordinary way of his business, it is now impossible to say. It is now in the Metropolitan Museum, New York.

[Sidenote: PARMA PORTRAIT OF ERASMUS]

The Greystoke portrait closely resembles the Parma picture, which is regarded by most critics as an original work, though to the present writer it appears to be no more than a fine contemporary copy or adaptation of Mr. Morgan’s picture or the Basel roundel. The Parma example,[410] in which Erasmus is shown with his hands holding open one of his own books, has the date 1530 on the plain background, two figures on either side of the head.[411] Documentary evidence[412] exists, showing that Holbein had painted one or more portraits of Erasmus at this period. One of them was in the possession of Goelenius, professor at Louvain, and in 1531 Johannes Dantiscus, Bishop of Kulm, and afterwards of Ermeland, was anxious to obtain a copy of it, and wrote asking to have this done for him by a painter of Malines. Goelenius, in reply, sent to his friend the original portrait as a gift. The Bishop, however, not to be outdone in generosity, returned the present, at the same time saying that the portrait was an earlier one than he had supposed, and that he wanted one of a more recent date. In answer to this Goelenius wrote that fortunately he was on terms of such close friendship with Holbein that he could get him to do anything he wished, and would procure from him a portrait of Erasmus which he had quite recently painted. Some portrait, whether an original or only a copy, was eventually sent, and it has been suggested that it was the portrait now in the Parma Gallery. When Dantiscus became Bishop of Ermeland, he would, in all probability, take the portrait with him; and this district was afterwards devastated by the Swedes during the Thirty Years’ War, and many of the art treasures of the province carried to Sweden. Some of these spoils of war became the property of Queen Christina, who took them with her to Italy, where she lived in later life, and among the works so taken, it is conjectured, may well have been the Erasmus portrait now at Parma.

VOL. I., PLATE 58.

The little roundel in the Basel Gallery (No. 324) (Pl. 58 (1)),[413] which is about four inches in diameter, forms part of the Amerbach Collection, and, no doubt, came into the possession of Bonifacius on the death of Erasmus. It agrees in all respects with the Greystoke portrait, though only the head and shoulders are shown, and it is not quite so masterly in its execution. It is very possibly the original study made by Holbein in Freiburg, upon which the Greystoke and other portraits were based. It has a plain blue-green background, and is perhaps not quite in its original state. There is a third “Erasmus” at Basel, the small panel in the Faesch Collection (No. 356),[414] a good old copy of the roundel in the Amerbach Collection. All three are mentioned by Patin. It would serve no useful purpose to enumerate and describe the many other versions of the roundel, the Greystoke, and the Longford portraits, which exist in various European collections at St. Petersburg,[415] Cassel, Karlsruhe, Vienna, Turin,[416] Rotterdam, Lausanne,[417] and elsewhere. As already stated, they were in great demand among the admirers of Erasmus, so that numerous copies must have been made. In the lifetime of Amerbach’s son Basilius there were no less than five in Basel, and when Richard Strein of Vienna wrote to him asking him to procure him a portrait of the great humanist, Amerbach, in reply, wanted to know which of the five he would like copied. The copy by Pencz, already described, may have been taken from one of these later portraits rather than from the Longford portrait of 1523. The copy at Rotterdam is said to have been presented by the Basel Council to the Rotterdam Council in 1532.

[Sidenote: WOODCUTS PORTRAIT OF ERASMUS]

Two other portraits of Erasmus by Holbein cannot be overlooked. These are the two beautiful woodcuts from his designs, which, from the fineness and accuracy of their execution, must have been cut by Hans Lützelburger. The first is a small round portrait,[418] showing the head and shoulders only, in profile, turned to the spectator’s right, seen against a plain background, and inscribed round the plain circular framework “Erasmus Roterodam.” It is evidently of about the same date as the Louvre portrait, and may have been one of the first of Holbein’s designs engraved by Lützelburger, who settled in Basel about 1523. The delicate and rather emaciated features of the scholar have been reproduced with wonderful skill. It was first used on the back of the title-page of the _Adagiorum opus Des. Erasmi Roterodami_, published by Froben in 1533, and again in _Des. Erasmi Rot. Ecclesiastæ sive de ratione concionandi libri quatuor_ (1535).

The second,[419] and still more beautiful, woodcut is considerably larger, being 11¼ inches high by 9 inches wide (Pl. 59). In his catalogue Amerbach calls it “Erasmus Rotterdamus in eim Ghüs.” Erasmus is represented at full length, standing, turned three-quarters to the right, in his doctor’s cap and furred gown, his right hand resting on the head of a truncated figure of Terminus, towards which he points with his other hand. The framework or “ghüs” within which he is placed shows to the fullest advantage Holbein’s complete mastery of Renaissance design, and is equal to the finest contemporary Italian work of the kind. It is purer in style, and lighter and more elegant in effect, than the greater number of his earlier designs for woodcuts. Two pillars with caryatid figures, with long beards and folded arms, and baskets of fruit on their heads, support a round arch above which on either side are nude figures with cornucopiæ, from which hang long wreaths of fruit and foliage. The whole is surmounted by a winged cherub above a lion’s head, from the mouth of which hangs a tablet inscribed “ER. ROT.” At the base a larger tablet is supported by two fish-tailed female figures. As a portrait this engraving is as fine as either the Longford or the Louvre pictures. The small head is full of force and character; and equally fine is the expression on the smiling face of the Terminus, while the treatment of the draperies is just as admirable. It is difficult to know which to admire the most, the beauty of the artist’s design and draughtsmanship, or the wonderful fidelity of the engraver, who in cutting it has lost little or nothing of the delicacy of Holbein’s touch, for both are masterly.

The original pear-wood block is in the Basel Gallery. Early proof impressions of it are in the British Museum, the Berlin and Munich Print Rooms, and elsewhere. These have a two-lined Latin inscription on the tablet at the base—

“Corporis effigiem si quis non vidit Erasmi, Hanc scite ad vivum picta tabella dabit.”

(If anyone has not seen Erasmus in his bodily shape, this cut, drawn from life, will give his counterfeit.) The design was evidently made for a complete edition of the works of Erasmus, but no such publication has been met with in which this impression with the single distich appears. The woodcut is first encountered in the complete edition of his writings published by Froben’s son, Hieronymus, and Nic. Episcopius in 1540, with a four-lined inscription, in which Holbein’s name is coupled with that of Erasmus in terms of high praise—

“Pallas Apellæam nuper mirata tabellam, Hanc ait, æternum Bibliotheca colat. Dædaleam monstrat Musis Holbeinnius artem, Et summi Ingenii Magnus Erasmus opes.”

No one but Lützelburger can have cut it, so that the design must have been made before Holbein’s first visit to England. Why Froben made no earlier use of it, it is impossible to say.

VOL. I., PLATE 59.

[Sidenote: PORTRAITS OF FROBEN]

The history of the double portrait of Erasmus and Froben, as far as it is known, has been already given. The version of Froben, at Hampton Court[420]—No. 603 (323)—is a drawing on parchment, afterwards fastened down on a panel, and roughly finished as a picture, and has little of the careful elaboration of Holbein’s painted portraits. It is a half-length figure, less than life-size, turned to the right, the face seen almost in profile. The arms are folded, and the hands, thrust within the sleeves of his brown cloak, which is lined with fur at the neck, are not seen. He wears no cap, and his straight hair is growing thin. The head is seen against what now appears to be a window or opening, sea-green in colour, which is part of the original plain background, afterwards repainted by Von Steenwyck with various pillars and mouldings. In front is a narrow stone ledge, over the greater part of which hangs what appears to be a white cloth, on which is inscribed, “IOANNES FROBENIUS TYP. HHOLBEIN P.” which is not the original handiwork of the painter. The face is a kindly but ugly one, and bears out the character given to him by Erasmus, who was overcome with grief at his sudden death. “All the friends of the belles lettres,” he wrote to a friend, “should put on mourning attire and shed tears at the death of this man, and should wreath his grave with ivy and flowers. Never before have I felt how great is the power of sincere friendship. I bore with moderation the death of my own brother; but what I cannot endure is the longing for Froben. So simple and sincere was his nature that he could not have dissembled had he wished. To show kindness to everyone was his greatest delight, and even if the unworthy received his benefits, he was glad. His fidelity was immovable, and as he himself never had evil in his mind, he was never able to cherish suspicion of others.”

There is a similar portrait of Froben in the Basel Gallery (No. 357),[421] an old copy, which was presented to the Basel University by Christian von Mechel, who acquired it as an original work by Holbein from the publisher Enschede at Haarlem in 1792, and was transferred to the Gallery in 1811. In the letter making the gift he speaks of it as softer, richer, and more powerful than the usual Holbein style. A third, and inferior, example was lent to the Tudor Exhibition in 1890 by Sir Henry B. St. John Mildmay, Bt. (No. 134), which is perhaps identical with the small portrait in oil which belonged to Walpole and was sold in 1842 at the Strawberry Hill sale for 19 guineas.

The genuineness of the Hampton Court portrait of Froben has been often disputed, and to-day the consensus of opinion is not in its favour. Both Waagen and Woltmann regarded it as a copy, and more recent writers, among them Dr. Ganz, hold the same view. Even those who consider it to be a genuine work by Holbein are forced to own that it is by no means a fine example of his portraiture. The head, however, has more character than is usually found in a copy, and, no doubt, its present condition is due to some extent to the mishandling it received from Von Steenwyck, who probably did not confine his attentions solely to the background. It is possible, therefore, to regard it as an original study by Holbein, which has suffered somewhat severely in the course of years. Mr. Ernest Law speaks of it as a genuine though not first-class example, and refers to the version at Basel as “little more than a clumsy imitation” of it.[422] The Basel Catalogue, on the other hand, says that the latter portrait, which is an old copy or else an original which has suffered severely from repainting, is “incomparably better than the seventeenth-century replica at Hampton Court.” Woltmann considered the Basel version to be merely a late Netherlandish copy,[423] while Knackfuss says that it is “very bad as regards colouring.”[424]

[Sidenote: ROUNDEL OF MELANCHTHON]

Another friend and correspondent of Erasmus, Philip Melanchthon, was painted by Holbein, though there is no evidence to show when or how they met. The small roundel in oils of the young German scholar in the Provinzial Museum at Hanover (Pl. 58 (2))[425] may perhaps have been done as a pendant to the circular “Erasmus” at Basel. It is almost exactly the same size, about four inches in diameter, and is carried out with an almost equal delicacy and freedom of touch, as though it were a study direct from nature. Melanchthon is shown nearly in full profile to the right, with dark smooth hair falling on his ears, and a scanty beard and moustache. His coat and plain white shirt are open in front, showing the bare chest. The background is grey, but may possibly have been at one time blue. The head itself is not free from retouching. It is preserved in its original circular box, the inner side of the cover being decorated in grey monochrome with a very beautiful design of foliage and fruit intermingled with the heads and figures of satyrs in the Renaissance style from Holbein’s own hand, and across the centre a cartouche with the following inscription in gold: “Qui cernis tantum non, viva Melanthonis ora, Holbinus rara dexteritate dedit,”[426] which is perhaps the sitter’s own personal tribute to the skill of the painter. The style of the Renaissance decoration indicates that in all probability the portrait was painted during Holbein’s third stay in Basel (1528-32).[427] Melanchthon attended the Imperial Diet at Speier in 1529,[428] and a little later visited his mother in Bretten, and it is by no means impossible that he also went to Freiburg to see Erasmus, and that while there, some time during 1530, Holbein painted the roundels of both friends. A second version of this portrait was in the possession of Horace Walpole, in which the inscription runs round the outer edge. It fetched fifteen guineas at the Strawberry Hill sale in 1842, and is now in the collection of Sir William van Horne in Montreal.

With these portraits of Erasmus and some of his most intimate friends may be placed Holbein’s own portrait of himself (_Frontispiece_), the very exquisite drawing in the Basel Gallery (No. 320),[429] in which he is represented almost full face, wearing a large red hat, a brown-grey cloak or overcoat with bands of black velvet, and a white shirt tied with strings at the neck. He is beardless, with short dark-brown hair, and brown eyes. The study is on paper, and is drawn in Indian ink and coloured chalks, and washed with water-colour which has faded in parts. This drawing, like the portrait of Holbein’s wife and children, and the one of Von Rüdiswiler of Lucerne by Ambrosius Holbein, has been at some time cut out round the outlines, and afterwards mounted on a greyish paper, which produces the slight effect of hardness which must certainly have been missing in its untouched state.[430] In 1907 the plain blue background was carefully renewed from an old example.

Some writers have held that it is not absolutely certain that this drawing really represents the painter. In the Amerbach inventory of 1586 it is described as, “Item ein tafelen gehort darin ein conterfehung Holbeins mit trocken farben (a counterfeit of Holbein in dry colours, _i.e._ crayons), so im grossen kasten vnder Holbeins kunst ligt”; and in the later inventories it is described in much the same way. Knackfuss, among others, says that from these words it is not positively to be concluded that the “counterfeit” was of Holbein himself. There can be little doubt, however, that Amerbach intended to describe it as a portrait of Holbein by himself; if it had been a drawing of some unknown sitter he would have so described it. As far back as 1676 it was published by Patin in his edition of the _Praise of Folly_ as Holbein’s portrait from his own hand. It bears, too, a strong likeness to the portraits of Holbein as a boy by the elder Hans, both in the “St. Paul” picture and in the drawing of 1511 of the two brothers at Berlin. There is the same massive head, with its fine forehead, breadth of cheek-bones, strong chin, and firm mouth. It has great resemblance, too, when due allowance has been made for the passing of twenty years or so, to the miniature portraits of himself which he painted at the end of his life. It may be accepted, indeed, without reservation as a genuine portrait of Holbein, of about the date 1523-5, when he was some twenty-six years old.[431] As a portrait it is a magnificent study. The face is a strong one, of a somewhat serious cast, but with a suggestion of humour about the finely shaped mobile mouth and in the clear brown eyes. The broadly built head with its high forehead indicates strength of character and intellectual capacity, and there is a quiet dignity and a sense of power in the whole countenance and in the carriage of the youthful figure, which one would expect to find in the likeness of a painter possessed, as Holbein was, of such brilliant technical abilities and so wonderful a creative genius.[432]