Hans Holbein the Younger

A Guide to Research

Erika Michael

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 1997
• Print ISBN: 9780815303893
• eBook ISBN: 9781136781131
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music

In this quincentennial year of Holbein's birth, this is the first comprehensive annotated bibliography of texts relating to this important Northern European Renaissance artist, with an accompanying historiographic essay on various aspects of Holbein's reception.The first part of the book, "Some Notes on Reception," contains overviews of texts about

Annotated
Bibliography

Annotated Bibliography

1. Primary Sources and Archival Documents to 1800.

1.

ALGAROTTI, FRANCESCO. "Sopra la pittura." In Opere scelte di Francesco Algarotti, 1. Milan: Società Tipografica de' Classici Italiani, 1823, 159.

Later edition of Algarotti's treatise Saggio sopra la pittura, Livorno, 1763. In the section Delia bilancia pittorica, observes that Titian was honored by Charles I [Emperor Charles V] as Raphael was honored by Leo X, Leonardo by Francis I, and Holbein by Henry VIII. Adds that Holbein was not inferior in art to Leonardo and that he was first among artists of the German school.

2.

ALGAROTTI, FRANCESCO. [Manuscript diary entries in the Dresden archives of the royal collections and in letters to Graf Brühl], See G. FECHNER [30], pp. 27-35.

3.

ALGAROTTI, FRANCESCO. "Algarotti's Correspondenz Über Erwerbung der Holbein'schen Madonna in Dresden." Jahrbücher für Kunstwissenschaft, 4, 1871, 186-99.

Includes the text of Algarotti's letter to Minister von Brühl informing him about the purchase of the [Dresden] Meyer Madonna on behalf of August II, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony. Excerpts from later letters record the size of the painting, disclose that Algarotti had called upon Laurent Grifoni (who claimed to have seen the painting in Amsterdam) to verify the authenticity of the work, convey the recorded impressions of Edward Wright (who believed it to be a portrait of Thomas More and his family), and list expenses connected with the acquisition.

4.

ANGLO, SYDNEY. Spectacle, Pageantry and Early Tudor Policy. Oxford: Clarendon, 1969, 218-19.

Quotes various archival sources on Holbein's part in painting cloths for an astrological ceiling for Henry VIII in the theater of a temporary banqueting house at Greenwich. Includes records of payments and information about materials (gold and silver) used. Records show that Holbein collaborated on the ceiling with "Master Nikolas" [Kratzer], and that he executed other works in addition to the ceiling (i.e., "iiij cloothes").

5.

ATHENAE RAURICAE. "Professores novi testamenti." Athenae Rauricae, Basel, 1778, 67-68.

The section on Oswald Myconius includes "Joh. Holbenium" in the circle of Erasmus and Glareanus and mentions his drawings in the margins of Erasmus's Praise of Folly.

6.

BEAVER, ALFRED. "Henry VIII. and the Fine Arts." The Portfolio, 13, 1882, 193-98.

An account of artists working for Henry VIII. Quotes entries of 1527 from the accounts of Henry Guildford and Thomas Wyatt indicating payment to "Master Hans for the plat of Tirwan," a painting possibly depicting the Battle of Spurs. Argues that in light of this evidence, and considering Holbein's friendship with Guildford and with Thomas More, he must have had an earlier introduction to the king than previously believed.

7.

B., C. CHR. [BERNOULLI, CARL CHRISTOPH], "Erasmus und Holbein." Easier Nachrichten, No. 296, Oct. 28, 1902.

Concludes from a postscript to a 1533 letter from Erasmus to Bonifacius Amerbach that Erasmus did not care for Holbein and considered him socially inferior.

8.

BLACK, WILLIAM HENRY. "On the Date and other Circumstances of the death of the Painter Hans Holbein, as disclosed by the discovery of his Will." Archaeologia or Miscellaneous Tracts Relating to Antiquity, 39, 1863, 272-76.

Author announces his discovery of Holbein's will and publishes a transcription of the text. Contemplates the possibility that Holbein died as a result of the plague, and notes the attempt to determine his place of burial.

9.

BLAINVILLE, DE. Reisebeschreibung besonders durch Italien. Erster Zusatz von Eduard Wright oder Beobachtungen die er auf seinen Reisen durch Frankreich und Italien in den Jahren 1720. 1721. 1722. gemacht. Vol. 4, Part 1, 64. Lemgo: Meyersche Buchhandlung, 1767. Translated from the English by J.T. Köhler. See [816].

10.

BLAINVILLE, DE. Reisebeschreibung besonders durch Holland, Oberdeutschland un die Schweiz besonders aber durch Italien aus des Verfassers eigner Handschrift in englischer Sprache zum erstenmal zum Druck befördert, von Georg Turnbull...und Wilhelm Gutherie. Vol. 1, Part 1, 403-04. Lemgo: Meyerschen Buchhandlung, 1784. Translated from the English by J.T. Köhler.

Travel notes of Jan. 9, 1707, written by G. Turnbull and W. Gutherie, include a trip to the Basel public library where the Amerbach collection of Holbein's works was housed. Among the apocryphal items reported by Turnbull and Gutherie: that Holbein was self-taught, that he was born in Basel, that because he drank he was so poor he could not afford to eat lunch, and that he decorated the exterior of an inn in payment for a meal. Relate the turn of Holbein's fortunes in England, and cite Holbein works seen.

11.

BREJON DE LAVERGNEE, ARNAULD, L'inventaire Le Brun de 1683. La collection des tableaux de Louis XIV. (Notes et documents des musées de France, 17). Paris: Réunion des musées nationaux, 1987, 255-60, 6 illus. of works by Holbein.

A study of Le Bran's 1683 inventory of works in the collection of Louis XIV. Introductory chapter includes information on agents and advisers to the king, questions connected with the inventory document, new discoveries, errors, French royal collections, and collections included in the Le Bran inventory. The six Holbein portraits included in the inventory came from the collection of Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, and (except for the Erasmus Writing) passed through the Everard Jabach collection into the collection of the king.

12.

CAMPBELL, LORNE. "Holbein's miniature of Jane Pemberton: a further note." Burlington Magazine, 132, 1990, 213-14, 1 illus.

Uncovers new information about the life of Jane Pemberton in the early seventeenth-century records of the Court of Star Chamber. Author confirms his previous conjectures [1491] about Pemberton's identity through a recently discovered description of her coat of arms.

13.

CARWORDEN, SIR THOMAS (Master of the Revels to Edward VI). Losely MSS.

In regard to Holbein's Windsor Castle portrait drawings: "Item, for a peynted booke of Mr. Hanse Holby making 6 li." See [243, vol. 2, p. 249].

14.

CHAMBERLAIN, ARTHUR. "A Newly-Discovered Miniature of Thomas Cromwell." Burlington Magazine, 20, 1911, 175.

Letter to the editor in which author notes that an entry in Cromwell's accounts indicates that he paid Holbein 40 shillings on Jan. 4, 1538. Conjectures that the miniature portrait of Cromwell in the J. Pierpont Morgan collection was made between August and September, 1537, in honor of the sitter's creation as Knight of the Garter, and was presented to him as a New Year's gift.

15.

CHAMBERLAINE, JOHN. Imitations of Original Drawings by Hans Holbein in the Collection of His Majesty, for the Portraits of Illustrious Persons of the Court of Henry VIII, with biographical tracts [by Edmund Lodge]. With 80 plates engraved by F. Bartolozzi. London: Bulmer, 1792-. See [1726].

16.

COLLINS, A. JEFFERIES, Jewels and Plate of Queen Elizabeth I. The Inventory of 1574. Edited from Harley Ms. 1650 and Stowe Ms. 555 in the British Museum. London: British Museum, 1955, 279, 2 illus. of works by Holbein.

Catalogue entry No. 47 describes the cup which may have been given by Henry VIII to Jane Seymour at the time of their marriage in May, 1536. Annotation includes comments on physical details of the cup and on its provenance and fate: "Redeemed and melted in October 1629, the gold being sold to the Bank of Amsterdam, and the gems to W. Scarborow and Adrian van Breem." No. 125 describes a gold basin and ewer ordered by Jane Seymour, possibly designed by Holbein. No. 998 describes a silver-gilt fountain designed by Holbein, given as a New Year's gift to Henry VIII by Anne Boleyn (drawing in the Basel Kunstsammlung). Includes comparisons of the descriptions of items in different inventories.

17.

COX, MARY L. "Inventory of the Arundel Collection." ("Inventory of Pictures, etc., in the Possession of Alethea, Countess of Arundel, at the Time of her Death in Amsterdam in 1654.") Burlington Magazine, 19, 1911, 282-86 and 323-25.

A transcription of the handwritten inventory of the collection of Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, taken from a volume of court proceedings in a case involving the Earl's heirs. Although the inventory is not complete, it includes many works by Holbein.

18.

CRINO, ANNA MARIA. "Documenti riguardanti un piccolo autoritratto di Hans Holbein il giovane e alcuni ritratti di Antonio Van Dyck." Rivista d'Arte, 31, third series, 6, 1956, 187-94, 1 illus.

Correspondence from the Florence State Archives (Mediceo) of 1679 to 1681 concerning the acquisition of Holbein's self-portrait (now in the Uffizi) by Cosimo III, Grand Duke of Tuscany. The Holbein self-portrait was found by the Grand Duke's representative in London in the home of the Duke of Norfolk, and was received in Florence in October, 1681. A print made from the painting was also located, thus providing Cosimo with a document of the painting's authenticity.

19.

CRINO, ANNA MARIA. "Altri documenti sul ritratto di Southwell dello Holbein e su una statuetta di Lucrezia del Durer." Rivista d'Arte, 10, 143-51, 1960, 2 illus.

Corr...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Series Editor's Foreword
• Preface
• Sources and Acknowledgments
• Some Notes on Reception
• Annotated Bibliography
• Index of Authors in Annotated Bibliography