Hans Holbein the Younger, Volume 1 (of 2)Chamberlain, Arthur B. (Arthur Bensley)
History
Hans Holbein the Younger, Volume 1 (of 2)
Chamberlain, Arthur B. (Arthur Bensley)
Holbein, Hans, 1497-1543 -- Criticism and interpretation; Painters -- Germany -- Biography
There is a large tracing of the design in the Basel Gallery, which has
evidently been taken from Holbein’s original drawing, and there are
other copies, almost contemporary, of his original studies for portions
of the work, one showing the lower part of the side wall with the horse
and groom. The Berlin Print Room, as already noted, possesses the very
beautiful drawing from Holbein’s own hand, which is the original study
for the front façade, showing the musicians and three of the dancing
couples of the “Bauerntanz,” with which the Basel tracing is in close
agreement, while in the Amerbach Collection there is a slighter version,
with certain variations, of the upper portion of the Berlin drawing,
showing the balcony with figures. It is a chalk and pen drawing, touched
with Indian ink.[264] Dr. Woltmann suggested that the man with the flat
cap on the extreme left of the balcony in the Berlin drawing, who is
looking down into the street, is intended for a portrait of Holbein
himself. In addition, the Basel Gallery possesses good copies of the
frieze with the dancers (No. 353),[265] and of the portion of the façade
with the mounted figure of Marcus Curtius,[266] made by the
glass-painter Niklaus Rippel in 1623 and 1590 respectively. Rippel was
master of the Basel Painters’ Guild in 1587. The “Curtius” drawing is
inscribed “in frontispicio domus,” and is evidently a faithful
transcript of the original; so much so that by its means it is possible
to obtain a very adequate idea of the grandeur of Holbein’s design, more
particularly in the magnificent group of the horse and its armed rider,
in which the Mantegnesque influence is unmistakable. Finally, there is
in the same Gallery an excellent reconstruction of the whole frontage
(No. 352), a water-colour drawing made by H. E. von Berlepsch in 1878,
based upon the Berlin study and the sixteenth-century copies of
Holbein’s sketches.[267]
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