Holbein’s studies from the nude are so rare that the one of a young woman in the Basel Gallery is of exceptional interest.[358] It is a pen and wash drawing, touched with white in the high lights, on red paper. With the exception of the “Christ in the Tomb,” and a single leaf of the Basel “Sketch-Book,”[359] this nude woman is almost the only drawing of the kind by him that is known. It appears to have been made merely as a study of muscular movement, and not as a preliminary design for a picture. The model is stepping forward from the side of a plain stone pillar, a heavy stone held in either hand, the weight of which brings the muscles of the arms into prominence. Her hair falls in long curls down her back, the head is bent towards the right shoulder, and the eyes are cast downwards, and the lips parted. Both in movement and in the suggestion of the rounded softness of the figure the drawing is admirable, and at the same time displays an Italian influence, recalling similar studies by Raphael and Leonardo. Dr. Ganz places it among the work of Holbein’s second English period. VOL. I., PLATE 53. [Illustration: A FIGHT BETWEEN LANDSKNECHTE _Drawing in Indian ink_ BASEL GALLERY ] [Sidenote: “A FIGHT OF LANDSKNECHTE”] Holbein made use of the Swiss landsknechte for other purposes than that of painted windows. One or two of his most masterly drawings depict incidents in the lives of these men, whose picturesque dress and gay and manly bearing made a strong appeal to him. The finest and most important of them is the large study in the Basel Gallery representing a fierce conflict between two considerable bodies of warriors (Pl. 53).[360] It depicts the contemporary methods of warfare with the utmost vivacity and close adherence to truth. It is, according to Dr. Ganz, a work of Holbein’s last residence in Basel, probably made just before his return to England in 1532. In the foreground of the fight two men are at close quarters, one of whom, with sword whirling over his head, grips the hair of his opponent, who is striking at his throat with a long dagger. On either side of them two soldiers are forcing a space round them with enormous pikes, while behind is a great crowd of shouting, panting, and struggling men, whose lances, dashed in with a few hasty strokes, stand out against the sky with an extraordinary effect both of number and movement. In the hottest part of the fight one combatant uplifts a great double-handed sword, while another protects his face with his raised drum. Beneath their feet are many trampled bodies and shattered weapons. The composition is a very fine one, and the draughtsmanship of extraordinary vigour and vitality. One can almost hear the cries and yells, and the clash of the arms, so completely has Holbein realised the scene, and so vividly set it down on paper with rapid but unerring pencil.[361]