After 1516 Hans Holbein the elder appears as a defaulter in the
registers of the tax-gatherers at Augsburg; but he willingly accepts
commissions abroad. At Issenheim in Alsace, where Grunewald was employed
in 1516, old Holbein also finds patrons, and contracts to complete an
altarpiece. But misfortune or a bailiff pursues him, and he leaves
Issenheim, abandoning his work and tools. According to Sandrart, he
wanders to Basel and takes the freedom of its gild. His brother
Sigismund and others are found suing him for debt before the courts of
Augsburg. Where he lived when he executed the altarpiece, of which two
wings with the date of 1522 are in the gallery of Carlsruhe, is
uncertain; where he died two years later is unknown. He slinks from ken
at the close of a long life, and disappears at last heeded by none but
his own son, who claims his brushes and paints from the monks of
Issenheim without much chance of obtaining them. His name is struck off
the books of the Augsburg gild in 1524.
The elder Holbein was a prolific artist, who left many pictures behind
him. Earlier than the Basilica of St Paul, already mentioned, is the
Basilica of St Mary Maggiore, and a Passion in eleven pieces, in the
Augsburg gallery, both executed in 1499. Another Passion, with the
root of Jesse and a tree of the Dominicans, is that preserved in the
Staedel, Saalhof, and church of St Leonard at Frankfort. It was
executed in 1501. The Passion of Donaueschingen was finished after
1502, in which year was completed the Passion of Kaisheim, a
conglomerate of twenty-seven panels, now divided amongst the galleries
of Munich, Nuremberg, Augsburg and Schleissheim. An altarpiece of the
same class, commissioned for the monastery of St Moritz at Augsburg in
1504-1508, has been dispersed and lost. 1512 is the date of a
Conception in the Augsburg gallery, long assigned, in consequence of a
forged inscription, to Hans Holbein the younger. A diptych, with a
Virgin and Child, and a portrait of an old man, dated 1513, came in
separate parts into the collections of Mr Posonyi and Count
Lanckoronski at Vienna. The sketch-books of Berlin, Copenhagen and
Augsburg give a lively picture of the forms and dress of Augsburg
residents at the beginning of the 16th century. They comprise
portraits of the emperor Maximilian, the future Charles V., Kunz von
der Rosen, the fool of Maximilian, the Fuggers, friars, merchants, and
at rare intervals ladies.
See also the biography by Stodtner (Berlin, 1896).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account