In Holbein’s portrait of Bonifacius Amerbach, in the Basel Gallery (No. 314) (Pl. 28),[196] the jurist is represented to the shoulders, almost in profile to the spectator’s left, a little less than the size of life. He wears a black velvet cap and a black gown with a fur collar, open to show the under-vest of blue-green damask and small white ruff round the neck. The fine, handsome face, with its prominent nose, is of a warm, ruddy complexion, and the bushy hair, which almost hides the ears, and the beard and moustache, are of chestnut colour. On a tree-trunk on the left hangs a large framed tablet with a Latin inscription, probably composed by Erasmus, in which the picture itself is made to extol the art of the painter for its truth to nature. Below these lines the names of the artist and the sitter, and the date, October 14, 1519, are given— “BON · AMORBACCHIVM · IO · HOLBEIN · DEPINGEBAT · A · M̅ · D̅ · X̅I̅X̅̅ · PRID · EID · OCTOBR.” The head stands out against a pale blue-green sky, with the snow-covered crests of the Schneeberg in the distant background, and the branch of a vine or fig-tree on the right. The richness and transparency of the colour is remarkable; it is, perhaps, of all Holbein’s portraits the most transparent in effect, with no trace of the dryness which sometimes characterises his later work.[197] In technical execution it shows a considerable advance on the earlier portraits of Meyer and his wife and of Benedikt von Hertenstein, the modelling and the minute and accurate draughtsmanship of the details, such as the beard and the hair, being already almost as masterly and assured as in his greatest portraits painted fourteen or fifteen years later. As a study of character and expression, too, it is very striking. The combined strength and refinement of Amerbach’s nature, and the kindliness and sense of humour which shine from his deep blue eyes, below projecting brows, have been admirably rendered, and in many ways the portrait shows that Holbein had already attained almost, if not quite, to the full maturity of his powers. In it, too, can be seen for the first time in his portraiture the practical application of the experience he must have gained during his visit to Italy, for in the lighter, gayer, scheme of colour, and the change in technique, which gradually developed into the enamel-like surface of his flesh tints which is so characteristic a feature of his English portraits, the influence of the painters of Lombardy, such as Leonardo, Mantegna, Luini, and others, is plainly evident.[198] In the Amerbach inventory it is described as: “Meines vatters conterfehtung in der iugend H. Holbeins vf holz mit ölfarb.” There is an old copy of it in the Karlsruhe Gallery. VOL. I., PLATE 28. [Illustration: BONIFACIUS AMERBACH 1519 BASEL GALLERY ] [Sidenote: SACRED PAINTINGS FOR CHURCHES]