GERMAN SCHOOL OF ENGRAVING. 



Deat^," OTer Holbein's claims to which the accurate refearcli 

 of M. Douce of the Britirti Miifeiim has thrown a (hade of 

 «ioubt that may not eafily be difpclled. 



It coniills of forty-lix fmall upright prints, each furround- 

 <d by a double-line border, wherein Death, in the llceloton 

 iorm, is poetically repreiented as leadinjt off an individual 

 from every ilatiou and condition of life, from the emperor in 

 his imperial Rate, down to the meaneil peafant ; and the ge- 

 neral moral which combines the whole is, that Death pays no 

 regard to age, fex, or condition. 



It ieems proper here to be obferved that thefe engravings 

 are not taken, as Paplllon, Strutt, and others have miftakenly 

 fuppofed, from an ancient painting on the walls of a ceme- 

 tery at Balil, and that this painting is not from the hand of 

 Holbein, but is of much older date. The originals are 

 drawings or fmall pictures which have been fuppoied to be 

 by Holbein, between which and the large picture in the ce- 

 metery there is th.is material difierence, tiiat the former forms 

 one long and connecled pruceflion of (ingle figures, each led 

 by a (keleton, whereas the latter is compofed of feparate 

 groups, ia wiiich one or more living figures or (kcletons are 

 occafionally introduced, as fiiited the views of the arlitl, and 

 altogether forming a feries, the idea of which was no doubt 

 fuggeiled by the walls of the cemetery, and by the dances of 

 death that were foir.etimes found painted in the crypts of.an- 

 ''cient cathedrals, and of which there was one at Lu'ec^ 

 anotlier in the church of the Innocents at Paris, and an- 

 other in our old cathedral of St. Paul. 



Of Sigifmund Holbein we fhall fay but little, for much 

 eould not be faid to his credit. He was uncle to our Hans, 

 and ])ainted, and engraved on wood ; but his powers were 

 very inferior to thofe of his nephew, and even to thofe of 

 bis brother. The prints marked with the monogram, wiiich 

 will be found in our firll plate of thofe of the German 

 fchool of engraving, are afcribed to him, but Strutt 

 doubts the facf of his having engraved them, nor does it much 

 matter. 



The cypher formed of an H and an I., which appears to 

 that cut in the Imagines Mortis, of which the fubjeft is 

 called " The Duchefs,"' is certainly not that of cither of 

 the Holbeins, and is very likely to have belonged to fome 

 < German wood engi-aver, whofe initials might be tkus conjoin, 

 rd, who was the real engraver of th.' whole fet of the Dance 

 of Death, and who might perhaps be Hans Lederer, as is con- 

 jcclured by Mr. Douce. 



Bartolomeo Beham was born at Nuremberg fome time 

 about the year 1496, and, according to Sandrart, ended his 

 days in Italy, a (hort time before the middle of the fucceed- 

 ing century. He travelled thither with duke William of 

 Bavaria, and became the difciple of Marc Antonio, under 

 whofe inltruftion he advanced rapidly in his profeffion, and 

 wiiofe (lyle he imitated without implicitly following. He 

 remained ieveral years at Rome and Bologna, workinn- chief- 

 ly in the excellent fchool of Marc Antonio, and incorporat- 

 ing v/ith tlie careful and patient manual execution of Gcrma- 

 ry, the accurate drawing of his mafter, and the fine tafte of 

 Italy and Raphael. Strutt accordingly fays of him, that "his 

 drawing is correct and mafterly ; his heads charattcriilic, 

 and the other extremities of his figures well marked." 



Sandrart ftatcs of this mafter, that in his time a great many 

 cf his engravings (prefumptively engraved //i/to, and notini'- 

 preflions from thf m) might be feen in the gallery of the elec- 

 T-r of Bavaria at Munich, and in the cabinet of tl>e prince of 

 Nei:boiir<-'. 



o 



The collection of the works of Bartolomeo Beham is 

 l^owevcr attended with confiderable uncertainty, from the 

 tircj-iulance of many of ihem having been publifhcd witu- 



VoL. XVI. 



StriJtt attriSctcg {<» 



y c 1 '"""""' l^^iiuout the mark oi the artill 

 "A Sybil reading, and having before her a Boy liolding 

 1-lambeaux," (marked B B. but apparently after Raphae 

 " Sufannah aiid the Eiders,' after Ji.ho Romano. T 



out his name, monogram, or other mark. 



him the engravings that arc markt d v/ith a fmall die, on 

 which fometimes appears the letter B, whilft the abbe M;;- 

 rolles, Huber and Roil, contend that thefe prints are the 

 produdfiou of Beatrici. 



Of the works generally attributed to this mailer the fol- 

 lowing are the principal :— the portraits of William, duke of 

 Bav.ina ; Erafmus Balderman, at the age of 33, and Leo- 

 nard van Eck, a counfellor of Bavaria, -ill in oCidvo. The 

 emperor Charles v., at the age of 31, with the Latin in- 

 Icnption " Progenies divum quintus fic Carolus i!!e imperii 

 C.cfar et ora tulit ;" and the emperor Ferdinand I. with the 

 infcription " Proximus a fummo Fcrdinandus Cifar Rex 

 Romanorum fic tulit ora genas," both in quarto, and marked 

 n.li. 1 hefe are a finely engraved pair of portraits, a:.d ia 

 much m the ilyle of Marc Antonio, that Vafari thinks the 

 portrait of Charles V. is really engraved by that mafter. 



The belt hillorical works of Beham are " Adam and Eve, 

 with the figure <;f Death introduced into Paradife." 

 "Judith beheading Holoferne.s" d;...,! 1525, and in th; tafte 

 ot^ Marc Antonio. " Tile Mad.nna lucklln- the Infant 

 Cnri't at a \\^indow," (without the mark of the artilL ) 



A Svbil readinn-. and liavin.T Kr-f,in> h^t- ■■ n,^,- l,„u;„jj. , 



J , - - - - ..v«...„.,^. The 



deatlis ot Lucretia and Cleopatra, both without the en<rra- 

 ver o mark. " The Judgmert.of Paris," with a dark back 

 ground, a imall fneze, reprefenting a combat, and marked 

 "iitus Gracchus," and anotiier fmall plate of a combat, 

 wuerein foldiers are fighting with clubs, companion to the 

 above. " An Infant carefting a Dog," a fmall circle, dated 

 I52|. Another Cliild, with a (kull nesr him, markrd 

 B. B. and dated 1524. An emblematical piece, infcribed 

 '■ Der Veit Laul," m which appears a half nakfd woman 

 fettered, and alleep under a tree, an infant at her fide, and a 

 lanib at her ieet ; and an indelicate fubjeA from Ecclcfiaftes . 



Hans Sebald Beham, the coufin or' nephew of Bartholo- 

 mew, was born at Nuremberg in th.e year i ^co, and died 

 at trankfort on the Maine in i^p. lie Is faid by Sandrart 

 to have ftudied under his relative, but Bartholomew went 

 early to Rome, and, it mull be remembered, wis but four 

 years older than Sebald ; periiaps he merely learned of him 

 the rudiments, and afterwards itudied with Aldegrever, of 

 whoin we fliall prefently fpeak, the works of Albert Durer. 



He was obhged to quit Nuremberg on account of his 

 hbertimfm, but lettled foon after at I'rankfort ; where, how- 

 ever, he relapfed into his former courfes. and after engraving 

 for fome years, ui the courfe of which t!ie number of plate, 

 and tablets which he produced is lurpriUng, he became the 

 landlord of a tavern. 



The German biographers of Sebald maintain, that whet, 

 he eftabiftiedliimfelf at Frankfort, he altered his monogram., 

 by fubftitutmg the letter B for the P which he ufed at 

 Nuremberg ; they do not fay he did it for the fake of con- 

 cealmeut, and it may in fome degree account for this varia- 

 tion, when we recollect that thefe letters are often o-rllr 

 confounded among the people of that nation. The Abb'e 

 MaroUes, Le Comte, and the French wriu rs, on the other 

 hand, often call him Hlll,ens, and Sebald de Boheme, for 

 which we cannot fo readily account. 



Sebald Beham ranks defcrvedly high among the littl* 

 mailers; he engraved chiefiy from hl8 own c^Trnpolitions. 

 which l.iew a hveiy and vigorous invention, though fome- 

 wliat hampered by the Gotho.gern.au tafte, which wa» 

 then prevalent, and whicii chleflv appears in ilie ftaithed and 

 inelegant folas with whlcli he loaded his draperies. His 

 drawing of the naked, on which he fe< 



piided Jiiinfe'f, ihoug! 



ins to have juiUy. 

 :i n.>t free iiwn Hiu.ner, ij often 

 2 . correct. 



