GERMAN SCHOOLS OF ENGRAVING. 345 



What, on the contrary, has ignorant Holbein done for you ? 

 Shakspeare and he divide between them, by word and look, 

 the Story of England under Henry and Elizabeth. 



172. Of the effect of science on the art of Mantegna and 

 Marc Antonio, (far more deadly than on Durer's,) I must tell 

 you in a future lecture ; the effect of it on their minds, I 

 must partly refer to now, in passing to the third head of my 

 general statement the influence of new Theology. For 

 Durer and Mantegna, chiefly because of their science, forfeited 

 their place, not only as painters of men, but as servants of 

 God. Neither of them has left one completely noble or com- 

 pletely didactic picture ; while Holbein and Botticelli, in con- 

 summate pieces of art, led the way before the eyes of all men, 

 to the purification of their Church and land. 



173. HI. But the need of reformation presented itself to 

 these two men last named on entirely different terms. 



To Holbein, when the word of the Catholic Church proved 

 false, and its deeds bloody ; when he saw it selling permission 

 of sin in his native Augsburg, and strewing the ashes of its 

 enemies on the pure Alpine waters of Constance, what refuge 

 was there for him in more ancient religion ? Shall he wor- 

 ship Thor again, and mourn over the death of Balder? He 

 reads Nature in her desolate and narrow truth, and she teaches 

 him the Triumph of Death. 



But, for Botticelli, the grand gods are old, are immortal 

 The priests may have taught falsely the story of the Virgin ; 

 did they not also lie, in the name of Artemis, at Ephesus ; 

 in the name of Aphrodite, at Cyprus? but shall, therefore, 

 Chastity or Love be dead, or the full moon paler over Arno ? 

 Saints of Heaven and Gods of Earth ! shall these perish be- 

 cause vain men speak evil of them ? Let us speak good for 

 ever, and grave, as on the rock, for ages to come, the glory of 

 Beauty, and the triumph of Faith. 



174. Holbein had bitterer task. 



Of old, the one duty of the painter had been to exhibit the 

 virtues of this life, and hopes of the life to come. Holbein 

 had to show the vices of this life, and to obscure the hope of 

 the future. " Yes, we walk through the valley of the shadow 



