Hans HolbeinChamberlain, Arthur B. (Arthur Bensley)
History
Hans Holbein
Chamberlain, Arthur B. (Arthur Bensley)
Holbein, Hans, 1497-1543
In the same year, 1538, his illustrations to the Old Testament,
ninety-one in all, were also published by the brothers Trechsel. They
did not accompany an edition of the Bible, but were issued as a book of
pictures, with appropriate letter-press. They are less known than _The
Dance of Death_ woodcuts, and in them the artist has put a curb on his
fertile imagination, and confines himself to telling the sacred stories
with great simplicity and directness, while nothing essential to the
full understanding of the story is omitted.
In addition to these more important woodcuts, Holbein also designed
several series of ornamental alphabets, one of them a dance of death,
another with peasants at their merrymakings, and a third with children
at their games.
DESIGNS FOR GOLDSMITHS AND OTHER CRAFTSMEN.
No form of art came amiss to this versatile genius. He made hundreds of
designs for jewellers and metal-workers, many of which, happily, have
been preserved, the greater part of them being now in the Basle and
British Museums. These include designs for rings, brooches, pendants,
medallions, buttons, badges, jewelled monograms, hand-mirrors,
decorative bands to be engraved upon metal, dagger handles and sheaths,
and every kind of personal ornament, and a number of larger objects,
such as cups, bowls, clocks, and similar pieces. In these, again, his
most inventive powers of design, based upon Renaissance lines, combined
with a very skilful adaptation for decorative purposes of the human
figure, place him in the forefront of sixteenth-century designers. His
most important piece of goldsmith’s work of which we know was a gold cup
of beautiful Renaissance design, known as the _Jane Seymour Cup_, the
original drawing for which is in the British Museum, and a second one in
the University Galleries at Oxford. It was undoubtedly made as a gift
from the King to the Queen, and bears their initials, together with Jane
Seymour’s motto, “Bound to obey and serve.” Benvenuto Cellini never
accomplished anything finer in cinquecento ornament than this. In the
beauty of his design, with its more restrained taste, Holbein equalled
the famous Italian craftsman. Another beautiful design for a clock, in
which the nude figures of boys are admirably introduced, was completed
for Sir Anthony Denny, who presented it to the King on the New Year’s
Day immediately following the artist’s death.
In his younger days, when in Basle, he made many admirable designs for
stained and painted glass windows, some with sacred subjects, already
mentioned, others with armorial bearings, and in several the figures of
armed soldiers, with their picturesque costumes, are introduced with
excellent effect.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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