Hans hiolbein, the younger (h. at Augsburg 149S, d. 1554), divides with Albert Dtirer the rank of chief of the old German school ; but, with invention scarcely if at all inferior to the great Nurnberg toaster, Holbein had lee of the mediaeval ecclesiastical spirit, and a lee exuberant fancy. He is the type of old German realism : as in the cue of Darer, his characteristic genius in design is more fully and powerfully developed in his engravings and woodcuts than in his ;sainting.. lie had Ions subtlety of thought, but a purer sense of physical beauty than Darer; was even a more prolific designer, and was possused of much greater versatility ; so that he could paint with equal routines' in oil, fresco, and distemper, and usquired celebrity ke as a painter of historical and religious' subjects, portraits and miniatures • while his especially the aerie. so rich in subject Ana ingenua in treatment entitled the ' Dance of Death,' were beyond parallel popular among him counanen. ii is best paintings In Germany are in the cathedral and the at Augsburg, in the museum and private collections of Basel, the altarpiece in the cathedral of Freiburg, and at Darmstaat lielbein came from Basal to England in 1527, and remained here (with the exception of a few brief visits to the Continent) during the rest of his life, dying in the service' of Henry VIII. In this country be executed comparatively few historical or biblical paintings, but a vast number of portraits (both oil paintings and chalk drawings), including the court, and most of the illustrious personages of the time. The royal collections at Windsor and Hampton Court contain a largo number of the works executed by him whilst in England, but many are lost, including his two groat pictures in tempera, ' The Triumph of Riches,' and ' The Triumph of Poverty,' painted for the company of German merchants in London, but which were pre seated by the oompany to Prince Henry of \Vales in 1616, from which time all trace of them is lost. These were considered by Federigo Zucchero, who made a copy of them, to be equal to the works of RafTaelle; and the drawing in the British Museum shows that they must have been amongst the finest works of their class ever produced. Ono of his most noteworthy pictures is in the hall of the Barbers' Company, London ; it is a composition representing eighteen members of that guild receiving it grant of privileges from Henry VIII. [Houle's, HANS, in Bloo. Mr.) Holbein had many followers, among whom the most celebrated were, Nicolas :Slimiest, a Swiss (b. 1484, d. 1531), and Martin Schaffner (flourished 1499-1535), whose chief works are in the cathedral of Ulm, the chapel of St. Maurice at Ntirnberg, and the Munich gallery. From this time dates the decline of German art. Already its distinctive character was being lost in a general and feeble imiaation of the Italian masters, the best painters being those who, like Johann Rothenhamner (b. at Munich 1564, d. 1623) and Adam Elzheimer (b. at Frankfort-on-the.Maine 1574, d. at Rome 1620), painted cabinet pictures, in a light graceful manner which has always found many admirers; their works consequently are in most public galleries, and many are in the private collections of this country.
The German painters of the 17th century were nearly all scholars of the Dutch and Flemish genre and landscape painters, or scholars and imitators of the Italian eclectics and naturalisti, while many of them resided permanently in the Netherlands or Italy. It will suffice, therefore, to mention Joachim von Sandrart (b. 1606, d. 1688), who painted every variety of subject in every variety of style, but who is now best known as the writer of a series of Lives of Painters, which has preserved much valuable information respecting his Italian con temporaries as well as his countrymen ; Heinrich Sehanfelds (b. 1609, d. 1675), equally versatile, prolific, clever, and without distinctive character as Sandrart; Heinrich Roos, much admired as a landscape painter ; and his son Philip Roos, better known as Rosa di Tivoli (b. 1655, d. 1705).
In the 18th century, painting in Germany, as throughout Europe, was coldly academic and conventional, and devoid of all invention, originality, and feeling. Yet whilst thus merely imitative, the per ception of harmony of colour, so characteristic of the painters regarded as models, was wholly wanting, and its absence seems scarcely to have been suspected. Even in the mechanism of the art there was marked
degradation. Christian Rode (b. 1725, d. 1797), Johann Henry Tisch helm (d. 1789), and Raphael Menge (b. 1728, d. 1774), are among the few painters of the century whose names are still remembered. Meng", extravagantly praised in his life-time, is now remembered as merely the type of a correct and accomplished academic painter without a spark of genius or spontaneous feeling-the artistic law-giver of his age, and the author of Bonus carefully considered, learned, and well-written treatises on painting. His pictures abound in the Con tinental galleries. Angelica Kaufmann (b. 1742, d. 1807), though German by birth, practised her art chiefly in England, and was one of the original members of the Royal Academy-ladies in the early days of that institution being allowed to append to their naine the coveted distinction of ILA. All her pictures are respectable : their value may be estimated from the characteristic example in the National Gallery. Solomon Genener (b. 1731, d. 1788) has made himself remembered as a painter by his celebrity as a poet ; whilst Dietrich (b. 1712, d. 1774) and Chodowiecki (b. 1726, d. 1801) have acquired a certain reputation from the universality of their efforts and the commendations of their contemporaries. Elias Rice:linger (b. 1695, d. 1767) claims mention as a clever painter and still more clever draftsman of animals and hunting pieces ; and Balthasar Donner (b. 1635, d. 1749) an a painter unrivalled for minuteness of detail, his hideous portraits having every freckle, wart, or wrinkle imitated with an accuracy that will bear examination with a magnifying glass.
The great revival of German painting in the early part of the present century, commenced by the exertions of a small band of zealous etuelents then residing in Rome, with the result of the subsequent reaction against the excessive ecelesiaatieisin and medievalism of the authors and supporters of the movement, can only be alluded to here. Sonic amount of the movement, and of the principal actors in it, will be found under the names of COUNELIUS, OVERBECK, Seusnow, VEIT, SCIENOSR, LESSLNO, ke., in the Btoo. Div.
Painting in the divergence of the schools of the Netherlands from those of Germany dates from the beginning of the 15th century. The founders of the Flemish school were Hubert and Jan van Eyck (b. 1366, d. 1426, and b. 1400, d. 1445), who united the majestic simplicity of the old Christian type with a close imitation of external nature and a homely strength characteristic pf their country. Their brother Lambert and sister Margaret were also artists. (Carton, Lea Trois Freres van Eyck.') Hubert van Eyck may be said to have so far improved the method of painting in oil, as almost to be entitled to the honour, long accorded by mistake to his brother, of being its inventor. (See Eastlake's `Materials for a History of Oil Painting,' where the question is fully investigated.) The great work of the brothers, it having been commenced by Hubert and finished by Jan, was the altar-piece in St. Bavo at Ghent, painted for Judocus van Vyt. It consisted of a centre picture of the Worship of the Lamb, sur mounted by God the Father, the Virgin, and St. John, and flanked by folding shutters, all relating to the principal subject. The different parts of this painting, unquestionably one of the most remarkable productions of modern art, are now separated. The upper and middle portions remain at Ghent ; the others are at Berlin. Michael Coxis executed a copy of it for Philip II., which is still more scattered. [EYCK, HUBERT Vex, in Moe. Div.] Two noble works by Hubert are the ' Triumph of the Church,' in the Museum of Madrid, and ' St. Jerome,' in the gallery at Naples, long attributed to Col-Antonio del Fiore. Jan van Eyck, though he has acquired a wider fame than his brother-in a great measure from his being regarded as "the inventor of oil-painting "-was a much less imaginative painter; but be carried the technics of painting far beyond any predecessor, and some of his pictures still remain in an almost perfect state of preservation-as, for example, that, dated 1431, of a man and woman (supposed to be portraits of himself and wife), in the National Gallery, which is one of the most admirable examples of his style.