There is no doubt that he decorated a number of houses in Basle in a similar manner, though we have records of only one of them; but drawings of several elaborately ornamented façades are preserved in various collections, which show that he was often occupied with this kind of work in his younger days. The most famous of these decorated buildings was, as already stated, known as _The House of the Dance_, from a broad frieze running across the second story, which represented a number of peasants boisterously dancing to the music of the bagpipes. The whole front was embellished with painted Renaissance architecture. The great variety of subjects he included, and the elaborate details, may be studied in a sketch preserved in the Basle Museum.
The subjects chosen for the interior decoration of the Basle Town Hall were also from classical antiquity. Richly ornamented columns divided the walls into a number of spaces, which were filled with paintings representing the vital importance to a community of impartial justice. Holbein’s subjects were _Charondas, the Lawgiver, plunging the Sword into his own Heart_; _Zaleucus ordering his own Right Eye to be torn out instead of his Son’s_; _Curius Dentatus sending back the Ambassadors of the Samnites_; and _Sapor, King of Persia, using the Body of the captured Emperor Valerian as a step from which to mount his Horse_. The smaller panels were single figures, such as _Christ_, _David_, _Justice_, _Wisdom_, and _Moderation_. The remaining wall in the Hall, painted in 1530, was covered with two large Biblical subjects--_Rehoboam dismissing the Messengers of the Israelites with fierce threats_, and _The meeting of Samuel and Saul_, when the Prophet angrily reproves the King for having disobeyed the command of God in sparing the Amalekites. The original sketches for both these compositions still exist, and are sufficient to prove how fine the completed pictures must have been. The vehement gesture of Rehoboam is well conceived, and the composition of the Samuel and Saul is masterly.
The two large allegorical friezes for the banquet-room of the Steelyard merchants in London must have been equally fine. The original sketch for _The Triumph of Riches_ (Louvre) shows how easily the genius of the artist adapted itself to this kind of work. The figures in these two compositions, which were done in _tempera_ on canvas, were life-size. They soon became famous, and in 1574 were copied by Zucchero, who, according to Carl van Mander, declared they were as fine as anything accomplished by Raphael. Such triumphal processions as these were, of course, a favourite method of decoration in his day, of which Mantegna’s _Triumph of Cæsar_ was the most famous. In _The Triumph of Riches_ he depicted Plutus, God of Wealth, seated in a car drawn by four horses, with Fortune in front, her veil flying behind her, scattering gold among the accompanying crowd, which is made up of many men of antiquity famous for their wealth, luxury, or avarice. In _The Triumph of Poverty_ Poverty herself, an ancient and miserable hag, and her comrade, Misfortune, are drawn in a poor barrow by two asses, Stupidity and Inactivity, and two oxen, Negligence and Sloth. The vehicle is driven by Hope, who is accompanied by Industry, Memory, and Experience, who distribute axe or hammer, spade or flail, symbols of work, among the poverty-stricken people who crowd round.