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MASTERPIECES IN COLOUR EDITED BY T. LEMAN HARE
This picture of a leading merchant of the Steelyard was painted in 1532, and constituted the artist's successful attempt to capture the patronage of one of the wealthiest merchant communities in the world. That the patronage was forthcoming quickly is suggested by the picture of another merchant of the Steelyard dated the same year, and now in the Windsor collection.
ILLUSTRATED WITH EIGHT REPRODUCTIONS IN COLOUR
LONDON. T. C. & E. C. JACK NEW YORK: FREDERICK A. STOKES CO.
I. Introduction 11 II. The Artist's Life 29 III. Holbein in England 51
I. George Gisze Frontispiece In the Royal Museum, Berlin
II. The Ambassadors 14 In the National Gallery, London
III. Portrait of a Man 24 In the Imperial Gallery, Vienna
IV. Jane Seymour 34 In the Imperial Gallery, Vienna
VII. Sir Richard Southwell 60 In the Uffizi Gallery, Florence
Hans Holbein the younger is perhaps the most outstanding figure in the history of German art. In the eyes of some he may yield place to his great contemporary Albert Dürer, but it is impossible to deny that for all his indisputable genius Dürer stood for a time that was passing, and Holbein for one that was to come. The younger man touched art at every point, nowhere without mastery; and whether we consider him as a draughtsman, a decorator, a painter of frescoes, a portrait painter, an architect, a modeller, a designer of jewellery, a book illustrator, or a miniaturist, we find ourselves face to face with such an extraordinary measure of achievement, that the claim to remembrance and admiration could be sustained if his art gift had been single instead of universal.
This picture, painted by Holbein when he was at the zenith of his powers, is well known to visitors to our National Gallery. The figures have been identified by some authorities as Jean de Dinteville and George de Selve, one was the French Ambassador to King Henry's Court, the other a great scholar who also served diplomacy. Both died young. The picture has roused controversy, as certain writers are of opinion that the subjects are Henry and Philip, Counts Palatine of the Rhine.