HOLBEIN 



4O25 



HOLBERG 



Holbein, HANS (c. 1497-1543). 

 German painter and engraver. 

 Born at. Augsburg, he was the son 

 of Hans Holbein the elder, and 

 brother of Ambrose and Sigmund 

 Holbein, also painters, the former 

 specially known as a designer for 

 work in wood engraving. When the 

 home at Augsburg was broken up 

 in 1514, Holbein went to Basel, 

 where he employed himself in pre- 

 paring designs for title-pages and 

 illustrations for the great printing 

 firms. His earliest surviving paint- 

 ing, representing the Virgin and 

 Child, was executed in the same 

 year. In 1517 he carried out some 

 wall decoration at Lucerne, but 

 was back again in Basel in 1521, to 

 which year belongs his decoration 

 of the Rathaus. His two greatest 

 religious pictures, each of them re- 

 presenting the Madonna and Child, 

 belong to 1522 and 1526. The 

 former is at Solo th urn ; the latter, 

 now at Darmstadt, is one of his 

 grandest compositions. 



Holbein first came to England in 

 1526, bearing letters of introduc- 

 tion to Sir Thomas More, who re- 

 ceived him with great considera- 

 tion, and entertained him at his 

 house. Then it was that he made 

 the various sketches and studies 

 for the important group represent- 

 ing Sir Thomas More and his 

 family, which appears to be no 

 longer in existence. Two years 

 later he was back again in Basel, 

 and there carried out some impor- 

 tant commissions. He remained 

 there for three years, returning 

 then to England, where he settled 

 down. One of the greatest portraits 

 of this period was that of Thomas 

 Cromwell, and it was probably the 

 then Master of the Jewel House 

 who presented Holbein to Henry 

 VIII, for whom at once he became 

 principal painter. To this same 

 period belongs the portion of the 

 cartoon for the decoration of the 

 Palace of Whitehall, now pre- 

 served as one of the principal trea- 

 sures of the duke of Devonshire. 

 Holbein's pre-eminently important 

 portrait of Christina duchess of 

 Milan, now in the National Gallery, 

 was painted in 1538, and soon after 

 its completion he was back again, 

 and for the last time, in Basel. He 

 then returned to England, but was 

 quickly sent abroad to paint the 

 portrait of Anne of Cleves. Re- 

 turning again to England shortly 

 afterwards, he resided in the par- 

 ish of St. Andrew's Undershaf t, Lon- 

 don, where, according to his will 

 discovered in 1861, he died, pro- 

 bably of the plague, Oct.-Nov., 1543, 

 not, as formerly supposed, in 1554. 



Holbein was a marvellous 

 draughtsman, and his designs for 

 woodcuts, and for decoration, and 



Hans Holbein, 

 German painter 



After a self- portrait 



for objects to be executed by the 

 goldsmith, are of the greatest pos- 

 sible beauty, 

 excels in sim- 

 plicity and in 

 accuracy. The 

 famous studies 

 preserved a t 

 Windsor Cas- 

 tle, and repre- 

 s e n t i n g the 

 chief persons 

 connected with 

 the court of 

 Henry VIII, 

 are unequalled 

 for the extraordinary simplicity 

 with which they present the true 

 portraiture. They are perhaps the 

 simplest and most truthful por- 

 traits ever executed, and done 

 with a rigid economy of line. 



Holbein was perhaps the first 

 man in England to paint what are 

 now known as portrait miniatures, 

 and the few which can be definitely 

 attributed to him are marked by 

 subtle delineation of character and 

 exquisite draughtsmanship. His 

 greatest paintings in England are 

 those in the National Gallery, at 

 Windsor Castle, Longford Castle, 

 and Lambeth Palace, but some of 

 his finest portraits can be seen at 

 The Hague, in Berlin, Vienna, Paris, 

 Munich, and Basel. His most not- 

 able miniatures are in the posses 

 sion of the queen of Holland, the 

 duke of Buccleuch, and J. P. Mor- 

 gan of New York. Examples of 

 his earlier work can be studied at 

 Basel. See Anne Boleyn; Anne 

 of Cleves ; Art ; Berners, Baron ; 

 Dance of Death; Elyot, Sir T. ; 

 Painting. a. c. Williamson 



Bibliography. Life and Works of 

 H. Holbein. R. N. Wornum, 1867; 

 Holbein, H. Knackfuss, 1899 : Hans 

 Holbein the Younger, G. S. Davies, 

 1903; Hans Holbein the Younger, 

 A. B. Chamberlain, 1913. Consult 

 also the works of E. La.w on the 

 Paintings at Hampton Court Palace; 

 Hanfstangels reproductions of the 

 Windsor Castle Studies ; and the 

 reproductions of Holbein's designs 

 tor woodcuts in various works. 



Holbein, MONTAGUE A. British 

 cyclist and swimmer. In 1882 he 

 rode 100 m. on a safety bicycle in 

 5 hrs. 54 mins. 

 2 sees.; in 1889 

 he covered 

 175J m., and in 

 1890, 177J m. 

 in 12 hrs. In 24 

 hours in 1892 he 

 accomplished 

 359 m. ; while 

 he did 100 m. 

 on a tricycle 

 the same year 

 in 5 hrs. 54 mins. 44 sees., and 337 

 m. in 24 hrs. Holbein became 

 equally famous as a long distance 



Montague Holbein, 

 British athlete 



swimmer, principally in connexion 

 with his nine unsuccessful attempts 

 to swim the Channel. 



On Aug. 27, 1903, starting from 

 Cape Gris Nez, he got within a mile 

 of the English shore, when he had 

 to be taken out of the water after 

 swimming for 22 hrs. 21 mins On 

 June 30, 1908, he swam 50 m. in the 

 Thames in 13 hrs. 47 mins. ; start- 

 ing from Blackwall Point to 

 Gravesend Reach, returning up 

 stream to Deptford and landing at 

 Woolwich Arsenal pier. Holbein 

 continued his Channel attempts 

 until 1911, the year T. W. Burgess 

 accomplished the feat. He was the 

 author of Swimming, 1903, and 

 Everybody's Book on Training and 

 Health Development, 1904. 



Holberg, LTTDVIG, BARON AF 

 (1684-1754). Danish writer. Bora 

 at Bergen, Norway, on Dec. 3, 1684, 

 he was educated there and at 

 Copenhagen University. He tra- 

 velled widely in Germany, Holland, 

 and Scandinavia, and, coming to 

 England, spent over a year in 

 Oxford. 1706-7, where he sup- 

 ported himself 

 by teaching 

 music. Re- 

 turning to 

 Copenhagen, he 

 became an 

 honorary pro- 

 fessor at the 

 university, but 

 set out travel- 

 ling again, visit- 

 ing Paris and 

 Rome. He came 



back in 1716, and two years later 

 became professor of metaphysics, 

 and, in 1720, of public eloquence. 



In 1719 a new chapter of his 

 varied life opened with the publica- 

 tion of the famous mock-heroic 

 poem, Peder Paars, a brilliant satire 

 on the pedantries and conventions 

 of his day, and he went on to 

 devote his energies to the drama. 

 He directed the newly founded 

 Danish theatre at Copenhagen 

 from 1722-27, producing in rapid 

 succession a large number of come- 

 dies, which have earned for him the 

 title of the " Moliere of Denmark." 

 The third phase of Hoi berg's life 

 was spent in producing a large 

 variety of liistorical, biographical, 

 and philosophical works, marked 

 by their good style no less than by 

 the extraordinary versatility of 

 their author. In recognition of his 

 invaluable services to Danish ver- 

 nacular literature of which he is 

 generally counted as the founder, 

 he was created baron in 1747. His 

 activity continued almost to lii.>- 

 death, which occurred at Copen 

 hagen, Jan. 28. 1754. See Den- 

 mark : Literature ; consult also 

 Life, Georg Brandes, 1884 



Ludvig Holberg, 

 Danish writer 



