Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1914 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XXI AUGSBURG HANS HOLBEIN THE ELDER THE rich city of Augsburg was not only the most important art centre in Swabia but was, in all Germany, second only to Nuremberg in its artistic fame and influence. Apparently art did not, however, develop so early there as in Cologne or Nuremberg, for no works remain to us from the fourteenth or even from the first half of the fifteenth century. To the second half of the fifteenth century belongs the painted ceiling which was taken from the guild room of the Weaver's House and is now in the National Museum Munich. It is signed with a jingle: "In fourteen fifty-seven it came, Peter Kaltenhof was the name Of the man who painted the same." The ceiling is divided into narrow sections in which Bible scenes are pictured, with explanatory inscriptions. The figures are small and crowded and the effect of the whole is not particularly decorative. It has been twice painted over; in 1538, by Jorg Breu and again, in 1601, by Johann Herzog, but can hardly have been of much artistic worth at any time. The first great master of painting in Augsburg was Hans Holbein the Elder, who was born about 1460 and whose name appears on the list of painters for the last time in 1524. It is probable that he came, first of all, under the influence of Bartholme Zeitblom of Ulm and then of Italian, particularly of Venetian, painters. Whether or not Holbein the Elder ever visited Venice we do not know, but there seems to be no reason why he should not have done so, as Augsburg, with the princely Fugger family at its head, was always in close intercourse with Italy, and a journey to the city which was the goal of all the German artists of the sixteenth century would not seem a very formidable undertaking. Venetian influence...
