Hans Holbein the Younger, Volume 2 (of 2)Chamberlain, Arthur B. (Arthur Bensley)
History
Hans Holbein the Younger, Volume 2 (of 2)
Chamberlain, Arthur B. (Arthur Bensley)
Holbein, Hans, 1497-1543 -- Criticism and interpretation; Painters -- Germany -- Biography
The two pictures remained in the Guildhall of the Steelyard until 1598,
when it was closed by Queen Elizabeth, who at the same time expelled the
Germans from their houses. For some years the place remained desolate,
and when, in 1606, under James I, the buildings were restored to the
League, most of the property left behind was found to have been stolen
or badly damaged. The glory and prosperity of the Steelyard, indeed, had
completely vanished, never to be fully restored again, and when the
affairs of the Company in London were finally wound up, the two pictures
were presented by the League, through their representative, the
house-master, Holtscho, on January 22nd, 1616 (old style) to Henry,
Prince of Wales, like his brother, Charles I, a patron of the fine arts.
Holtscho, in describing the event, says: “I cannot, also, leave it
unnoticed, that although these works are old, and have lost their
freshness, yet His Highness, as a lover of painting, and as the works of
the master, specially this work, have been highly commended, has taken
great pleasure in them, as I have myself perceived, and have also heard
from himself.”[51] The researches of Dr. Lappenberg have placed these
facts beyond doubt, thus disproving the old legend that the pictures
were destroyed when still hanging on the walls of the banqueting-hall of
the Easterlings during the Great Fire in 1666.
Footnote 51:
Woltmann, i. 381, quoting from Lappenberg, _Urkundliche Geschichte des
hansischen Stahlhofes zu London_, 1851, pp. 82-87.
[Sidenote: THE TWO “TRIUMPHS”]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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