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
A similar background is shown in the design in the Berlin Print
Room,[316] though only the red roof of the church tower appears above
the shield. This drawing has been touched with colour in places, the
faces of the two landsknechte with red, and also the roofs of the houses
of the village seen in the distance, the landscape with green and brown,
while colour is also used in several of the decorative details, such as
the festoons hanging from the wide flattened arch. The attitudes of the
two shield-bearers are more natural and less forced than in the Basel
sheet. They are dressed in the same fashion, the man on the right
wearing his large feathered hat fastened to his back, and leaning on a
large pike held with both hands. The soldier on the left, an exceedingly
graceful figure, with a long lance placed point downwards, rests one
hand on the shield, and with the other touches his sword hilt. The
architectural setting is similar in general design to that of the Basel
example, though here the arch is supported by pairs of short slender
columns, with sculptured figures of Judith and Lucretia standing on the
capitals, and above them Samson and Hercules, while a long frieze over
the arch contains a battle of nude foot soldiers and horsemen, in the
midst of a shallow stream.
In another drawing in the Basel Gallery,[317] the shield, a fine
heraldic design, completely fills the right-hand side of the sheet. It
contains a coat of arms consisting of two pears hanging from a branch
and a star on either side, and, surmounting the shield, a helmet with
large upstanding wings, between which is placed a branch with a single
pear, elaborate scroll-work falling on either side. On the left stands a
fierce-looking landsknecht, with his plumed hat on his back, and a great
two-handed sword upon his shoulder. Over the crown of the arch, but not
forming part of the architectural design, is a battle scene with four
men fighting, two with long lances and one with a gun. This drawing,
which is a most effective one, is signed “H.H.” The design in the
Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris,[318] appears to be one of the earliest of
all, produced during his stay in Lucerne. It is evident, from the figure
on the left-hand side, that it was ordered in celebration of a wedding,
the richly-dressed young lady wearing a bridal crown being the
newly-wedded wife of the landsknecht standing on the right. Each one
supports a shield with a coat of arms, the woman’s consisting of three
arrows, and the man’s of an anchor. The soldier, with long pike over his
shoulder, has a strong facial likeness, as already mentioned, to the
warrior on the right of the Basel design, while the face of his wife is
of the same type as the head in the Louvre study for the Solothurn
“Madonna.” In the background is a castle on a precipitous rock by the
side of a lake, shut in by a mountain range. The framework consists of
two columns with grotesque heads in the capitals, supporting some
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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