HANS HOLBEIN THE YOUNGER ------------------------------------------------------------------------ VOL. I., FRONTISPIECE [Illustration: HANS HOLBEIN Self-Portrait Drawing in Indian ink and coloured chalks, washed with water-colour BASEL GALLERY ] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ HANS HOLBEIN THE YOUNGER BY ARTHUR B. CHAMBERLAIN ASSISTANT KEEPER OF THE CORPORATION ART GALLERY, BIRMINGHAM WITH 252 ILLUSTRATIONS, INCLUDING 24 IN COLOUR IN TWO VOLUMES VOL. I NEW YORK DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY 1913 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO. at the Ballantyne Press, Edinburgh ------------------------------------------------------------------------ TO MY WIFE ------------------------------------------------------------------------ PREFACE IN this book the writer has endeavoured to give as complete an account as possible of the life and career of the younger Holbein, together with a description of every known picture painted by him, and of the more important of his drawings and designs. The earlier books devoted to the subject—such as Wornum’s _Life and Works_, 1867, and Dr. Woltmann’s two volumes—although they must always remain of the utmost help to the student, are now in some respects out of date. The second edition of the latter’s great work, in which he modified and corrected many passages in the earlier issue, has never been fully translated into English; while the latest book of importance on the subject published in this country, _Hans Holbein the Younger_, by Mr. Gerald S. Davies, M.A., 1903, is mainly devoted to the art of the painter, and does not profess to give complete biographical details of his life. In recent years many new facts as to Holbein’s career have been discovered, and fresh pictures by him unearthed, while modern criticism has reversed some of the earlier conclusions respecting the authorship of a certain number of works at one time attributed to him. Much valuable information upon the subject has been published at home and abroad, largely in periodicals devoted to such matters and in the transactions of artistic and learned societies, by various well-known students of the master in Germany and Switzerland, chief among whom must be mentioned Dr. Paul Ganz, the director of the Public Picture Collection in Basel, now recognised as the leading authority on Holbein, together with Dr. Hans Koegler, Dr. Emil Major, H. A.