Nature and Art, January 1, 1867.] 
HOLBEIN IN GERMANY. 
21 
constantly crossed by German students, to and 
from the universities of Pisa or Bologna, and by 
men connected with the new art of printing. In 
Milan itself there were three or four German 
publishers between 1474 and 1520 ; and some of 
the draughtsmen, whom they employed for initial 
letters and title-pages, must have been quite capable 
of making a tolerable outline of the composition. 
Or, finally, Burgkmair may have brought a copy 
home to Augsburg, when he returned from Italy in 
1508. 
Dr. Waagen suggested, some years ago, that the 
early biographers may have been mistaken. It is 
not at all improbable. Our only quarrel with Dr. 
Woltmann is that he is so positive about the 
Italian trip, without showing the necessity for it. 
Having traced his hero fairly enough to Lucerne, in 
1518, or thereabouts, and having still a few months 
on hand, he pushes him across the lake, and over 
the pass of St. Gothard, and so by Bellinzona to 
Milan, and shows him Leonardo’s masterpiece in all 
the freshness of its short-lived beauty. He doubts, 
moreover, whether he may not take him on to 
Pavia, in order to study architectural painting 
from the facade of the Carthusian convent there. 
But he is content with hinting the feasibility of 
this scheme, and he returns with him to Basle, 
where he regains his better judgment. 
Holbein’s Last Supper, painted on wood, was 
broken up, probably by the fanatics of Basle, in 
1529. Some portions were lost; but the larger 
ones were preserved by Holbein’s true friend, 
Bonifacius Amerbach. They are now pieced 
together, and form No. 21 of the Holbein Gallery 
in the Basle Museum. No. 5 is an earlier Last 
Supper, on linen, which we barely mentioned in 
our first article. The two works naturally chal- 
lenge comparison ; and No. 5, in spite of its youth- 
ful defects, has been the more tenderly treated of 
the two. The personages, say the critics, are here 
more clearly, though coarsely individualized. Judas 
receiving the sop, is abject and self-condemned, yet 
unrepentant ; whilst St. Peter is glaring at him, 
with both fists doubled upon the table. In the 
later work (No. 21) all the caricature is reserved 
for J udas. He sits on the spectator’s side of the 
table, griping the money-bag, and displaying a harsh 
profile of the lowest Jewish type. Lavater * has 
chosen this to illustrate his ideas of sordidness. 
Mrs. Jameson complains that Judas is made a foul 
protagonist in the scene. Only eight of the other 
Apostles are preserved : otherwise, perhaps, he 
might not appear so prominent. In Leonardo’s 
picture lie is shrinking back ; a more refined con- 
ception of the wretch, whose “ little grain of con- 
science ” drove him mad. Holbein has only thought 
of the kissing traitor, with his hard mouth screwed 
to desperation. Christ has just spoken the words, 
“ One of you shall betray me,” and his face and the 
action of his hands are manifestly after Leonardo ; 
and so is his half-isolation on his right hand. The 
* “ Essays ou Physiognomy,” vol. i., p. 186. London, 
1789. 
isolation is here effected by St. John’s turning aside 
to repeat the words to St. Peter, who has risen, 
and is bending his noble head, with his hand upon 
St. John’s shoulder. The picture is altogether a 
fine one, though very inferior to that of Leonardo. 
Of all the works preserved in the Basle Museum, 
the best, according to the portrait-painter Sandrart,* 
is one designed apparently for an altar-piece, and 
divided into eight scenes of the Passion. Sandrart’s 
vivd voce account of it, in 1644, so moved the 
Elector of Bavaria, that he offered to buy it at any 
price ; but the Council of Basle refused to discuss 
the bargain. Dr. Waagen compares this work with 
the Basilica of St. Paul, by the elder Holbein, and 
he descries a close resemblance between them, both 
in the execution of the parts and in their tabular 
arrangement. He says that one can nowhere more 
distinctly trace how young Holbein’s style was 
developed out of that of his father. He is pro- 
bably quite correct when he pronounces it to be a 
youthful work, arguing from the inequality of the 
composition, six of the scenes being either over- 
crowded or caricatured, whilst the other two are 
almost perfect. But he is just as probably mis- 
taken when he detects the father’s influence in the 
choice of colours, and in the manner of laying 
them on ; for they have not only suffered from 
chemical changes, but also — as recently discovered 
documents prove — from restoration. Thus the 
arguments must be chiefly based upon the character 
of the designs. Dr. Woltmann considers that this, 
though one of the earlier, is not one of the earliest 
works of Holbein. Some of the compartments are 
very striking, as one may see from Merian’s ex- 
cellent lithographs. The Arrest, Christ before 
Caiaphas, and the Crucifixion, may be overcrowded, 
but each has a fine scenic effect. The composition 
of the Entombment is taken from that in the 
Borghese Palace at Borne, painted by Baphael for 
Perugia, in 1507. Baphael himself was partially 
indebted to one of Mantegna’s engravings, of which 
he made a copy before forming his own design. 
But the resemblance is too close to be merely due 
to a common source. Holbein must have seen a 
copy of Baphael’s picture. The dead body lias 
been foreshortened, in order to suit the narrow 
compartment ; but the mode in which it is borne 
on the shroud, with dependent arms and legs, is 
borrowed from Baphael ; and so are the bearers, 
even to some details of costume. The Christ of 
Baphael is divine in death ; that of Holbein is 
more distorted by suffering. Holbein’s figures of 
the Virgin and St. John, standing apart, are com- 
paratively insignificant ; but the principal design 
is noble, and adapted in the spirit of a great 
master. 
Still more noble, and far more original, we 
believe, is the Agony in the Garden. The story 
could not be better told. The three Apostles are 
sleeping in the foreground ; St. Peter supporting 
his head with one hand, and having let a short 
sheathed sword slip out of the other. Bound a 
* Author of Tcutsclie Akademie in 1679. 
