230 
HOLBEIN IN GERMANY. 
[Nature aud Art, December 1 , I860. 
master. It is now at the Basle museum, sliced in 
two, so as to exhibit both sides of it. One of them 
represents the junior school : to the left is the 
master at his desk, rod in hand, hearing three boys 
repeat their ABC; and at an opposite desk sits 
the mistress with a little girl. The other repre- 
sents the adult school, where the master is setting 
copy-books before two hobbledehoys. Each side is 
dated 1516. And now that we have seen how our 
young artist earned his first crust of independence, 
let us glance at the place that was to be his head- 
quarters for ten years. 
Basle was well described by a lively Italian, 
eighty years before Holbein’s arrival. Looking 
down upon it from the neighbouring heights, he 
says, one is struck by the high-pitched roofs, and the 
many-coloured glazed tiles that glitter in the sun. 
Almost everything is new ; for earthquakes and 
fires have half-ruined the old minster towers, and 
scarcely left one hundred old houses standing. The 
Bhine too, in the early summer, swollen by melt- 
ing snows from the Alps, often sweeps away the 
long wooden bridge, and cuts off the northern 
quarter from the main body of the town. But the 
place is rich, and quickly recovers itself. The streets 
are wide enough, and well-paved ; the churches are 
numerous, not indeed made of marble as in Italy, 
but still of handsome stone ; aud Florence cannot 
boast of neater dwelling-houses, each with its own 
fountain and courtyard and garden. There are 
splendid public fountains also, and more conduits 
than at Viterbo, and they are full of sweet and 
sparkling water. The people delight in breeding 
singing-birds, and they make the storks at home ; 
for it is thought that if a stork’s nest were disturbed, 
she and her mate would bring firebrands on to the 
roof. The public walks are closely shaded with 
pollard oaks and elms ; and there the young folks 
race and wrestle, and shoot at the mark, or hurl 
the bar. The city walls are not high enough to 
stand a hot assault, but their defenders say that 
they are the walls ; and indeed they are broad- 
shouldered and stout-hearted, only too fond of 
father Bacchus and dame V enus. As for learning, 
it is confined to the vulgar tongue ; and the very 
name of Cicero is unknown. 
The writer, whose letter we have been citing, 
was HLieas Sylvius (or Eneo Silvio Piccolomini, of 
Sienna), who played one of the leading parts in the 
Council of Basle (1431-1443). As soon as he be- 
came Pope Pius II., he thought of his former hosts, 
and their intellectual shortcomings, and he founded 
the University of Basle in 1460. It flourished 
rapidly, and helped to break through the class 
exclusiveness remarked by its founder. The Free 
City, as he knew it, was nominally governed by its 
bishop and two popular assemblies, but actually 
by a small oligarchy. No one below a knight 
was eligible for the post of burgomaster. Plebeian 
beauties were admitted to the state balls, but not 
their fathers and husbands, unless they were 
extremely useful to the aristocracy. This exclu- 
siveness the nobles carried to church with them. 
Next to the massive altar-plate, the most striking 
ornaments were the shields of the dead magnates ; 
and the living ones managed to combine religion 
and comfort and respectability in a way that was 
novel to their southern visitor. The bodies of the 
churches, says he, have wooden closets on each 
side ; and the mistresses shut themselves up with 
their daughters and maids, in higher or lower 
closets, according to their rank, so that the noble 
ladies are quite invisible ; but the untitled women 
show their heads when they stand up ; the rest of 
the congregation can be seen down to the waist. 
The pew system, then, was antecedent to Protest- 
antism, with which we are apt to connect it. 
Perhaps it marks the spirit of the northern races ; 
who do not care so much about levelling the bar- 
riers of rank, as keeping a door open for a change 
of owners. The burgher may remove the knightly 
shield, but he quietly appropriates the pew. This 
sort of change was going on when young Holbein 
entered Basle. 
The University had already done a brave piece 
of work, a large portion of which would not have 
pleased its papal founder. It had made the town 
an asylum for students. Not only those had come 
who desired instruction in the classics, in Hebrew, 
and in orthodox theology, but those also who 
longed for something like free polemical discussion. 
The new ideas had spread from student to towns- 
man, The burghers had begun to jostle the nobles, 
and edge them out of office ; and they had more 
than maintained the old independence of the Free 
City. They had refused to follow the Swabian 
League, when Maximilian turned it against Swit- 
zerland. But, loath to attack their emperor, they 
had stood neutral throughout the war. At the 
close of it, they had been harassed out of patience 
by the resentful Imperialists ; and they had entered 
the Swiss Confederation in 1501. At the same 
time they had been at variance with their own 
bishop. His claims to be chief magistrate had 
often been contested : they were now set aside. 
His spiritual authority, and some political influence 
remained ; but he was not left strong enough to 
remove the teachers, who were preparing the Avay 
for the Beformation. 
A minor change, too, had taken place, which 
made the streets more pleasant for a painter. At 
an earlier period the substantial burgher used to 
wear sombre clothing himself, and enforce sombre- 
ness upon his j uniors ; and so it was to be again at 
a later period. But now, during this interval of 
excitement, the dark plumage was moulted, and 
bright colours flaunted in the sun. It Avas a 
carnival before the long Lent of Calvinism. The 
republican youths decked themselves like gallants 
of a court. In the drawings of Holbein, Ave see 
broad-brimmed hats and feathers, slashed jerkins 
and breeches, pinked shoes, openworked or em- 
broidered! shirts and frills, Avith brooches and other 
elegant fopperies. The women could not outdo 
their brothers, but they equalled them ; and hEneas 
Sylvius would no longer have complained that the 
floral sisterhood might be mistaken for so many 
vestal virgins. In short, the old restraints had been 
