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
There is a magnificent drawing, one of the most powerful studies Holbein
ever accomplished, in the collection of the Earl of Pembroke and
Montgomery at Wilton House,[130] which until recently has been generally
regarded as a portrait of the Lord Privy Seal—though it bears little
likeness to the Tyttenhanger panel—because the words “Lord Cromwell” and
“Holbein” have been inscribed in the bottom corners by a later hand than
the painter’s. It is in black and red chalk on paper tinted pink, with
slight touches of colour on the fur of the gown and the jewel in the
cap. The outlines of the features have been reinforced in ink, but this,
in contradistinction to some of the drawings in the Windsor collection,
where such retouching is evidently from a later hand, has been carried
out with such power combined with delicacy that it seems certain that it
was done by Holbein himself. The drawing evidently at one time formed
part of the Windsor series, at the date when the latter was given by
Charles I to an earlier Earl of Pembroke in exchange for the little “St.
George” by Raphael, which is now in the Hermitage. This book of drawings
was afterwards given by Pembroke to the Earl of Arundel, and it is most
probable that the so-called “Cromwell” drawing remained behind, perhaps
by accident. Quite recently it has been definitely identified as the
portrait of George Nevill, third Lord Abergavenny, by means of a
miniature in the possession of the Duke of Buccleuch, in water-colours,
on a playing card, which is based on Holbein’s drawing, and is inscribed
“G. Abergaveny.”[131] It bears a very strong likeness to the drawing,
and is attributed to Holbein himself. Further proof of identity is
obtained from a picture, which agrees with the miniature but does not
show the hands, in the collection of the Marquis of Abergavenny at
Edridge Castle, Kent. Both the Wilton drawing and the miniature were
included in the Burlington Fine Arts Club Exhibition, 1909 (No. 70 and
Case C. No. 22), and the former was in the Tudor Exhibition, 1890 (No.
1414).
Footnote 130:
Woltmann, 263. Reproduced by Davies, p. 162; Vasari Society, pt. v.
No. 28; _Catalogue of Burlington Fine Arts Club Exhibition_, 1909, Pl.
xxviii.
Footnote 131:
Reproduced in _The Connoisseur_, vol. xviii. No. 71, July 1907,
frontispiece (in colour); and in the _Illustrated Catalogue of the
Burlington Fine Arts Exhibition_, Pl. xxxiii.
[Sidenote: PORTRAIT OF MORETTE]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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