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The Mentor: Two Early German Painters, Dürer and Holbein, Vol. 1, Num. 48, Serial No. 48 cover

The Mentor: Two Early German Painters, Dürer and Holbein, Vol. 1, Num. 48, Serial No. 48

Chapter 14: DÜRER AND HOLBEIN The Young Artist
By Frank Jewett Mather
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About This Book

A concise study profiles two early German painters, tracing Dürer’s growth from apprentice to master, his exacting craft in engravings and woodcuts, and major themes such as biblical narratives, the Apocalypse, and notable prints like the Knight, Death, and the Devil and Saint Jerome. It explains his technical methods, workshop practices, and the evolution of his portraiture after exposure to Venetian models. Paired with discussion of Holbein’s precise, dignified portraiture and devotional images, the text compares their temperaments, subjects, and means of expression, showing how technique, composition, and attention to character convey moral and scholarly intentions in their art.

DÜRER AND HOLBEIN
The Young Artist

FOUR

Hans Holbein came of an artistic family. Indeed, he is usually known as Holbein the Younger; for his father, Hans Holbein the Elder, was a painter of great ability himself. His uncle also, his mother’s father, and most of his family were painters and decorators in the city of Augsburg, Germany, where Holbein the Younger was born sometime toward the end of the fifteenth century.

No one knows exactly the year in which Holbein first opened his eyes. In those times they did not keep such an accurate record of births and deaths as they do nowadays. So, unless a man was the son of a king or some other important person, it did not matter much when he was born. Still, we are probably right when we say that Hans Holbein was born in 1497.

Those were the days of Augsburg’s prosperity. All its magnificence is gone now; but then it boasted of many merchant princes, men of distinction, and patrons of the fine arts. It was a favorite city of Emperor Maximilian himself. There was less travel at that time than now, and consequently the citizens of each town were much more closely bound together. Civic pride ran high. It was the period of the Renaissance, that great period of awakening to the appreciation of fine things in art and literature. So of course Augsburg had its Guild of Painters, and Holbein the Elder was a member of it.

Hans was the favorite son, and both he and his brother Ambrose were educated to be artists in their father’s studio. There they worked until 1515, when Hans and Ambrose journeyed to Basel, at that time a center of learning and art.

There Holbein’s chief occupation was the drawing of title pages for books. Erasmus, the great scholar, is said to have been his patron, and helped him in many ways. Another powerful patron was Jacob Meier, the first commoner who ever held the office of burgomaster of Basel, and under whose rule the reformation of the city laws was peaceably carried out. He was the original of Holbein’s first portrait painted in Basel, and for him, eight or nine years later, was painted the famous Meier Madonna.

PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 1, No. 48, SERIAL No. 48
COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.

THE MEIER MADONNA—Holbein