The Digital Ark: Early Modern Collections of Curiosities in England and Scotland, 1580-1700

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Hans Holbein the Younger (1497 - 1543)

German artist and printmaker Dictionary of National Biography entry: http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/13478 Other biography: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Holbein_the_Younger Artist - painter
Relationships: Holbein [ambiguous] (-) was a same person as? (uncertain) Hans Holbein the Younger
Linked print sources: as Mentions or references - London in 1710, from the Travels of Zacharias Conrad von Uffenbach .
as Subject of/in a document - The Paintings of Hans Holbein.
References in Documents:
Musaeum Tradescantianum (1656) Two figures carved in stone by Hans Holben.
London in 1710, from the travels of Zacharias Conrad von Uffenbach

On the morning of 25 Oct. we drove to Kensington. The house is not very large but new and regular, having many handsome and well-furnished rooms. In several we saw various pictures of Holbein and other fine paintings, of which the Birth of Christ, a night-piece, and the Sacrifice of Elijah were the most elegant. We saw also here a barometer of Tompion with a round disc as a clock. We were taken into a room where paintings of the English admirals, fourteen of them, were hung. This opened into a small room in which were portraits of the four Indian kings who some time ago paid a visit to London. In another we saw a curious screen before the fireplace, on which there were all manner of Indian birds in relief with their natural feathers stuck on it. The so-called Great Hall is narrow and long but adorned with handsome paintings. Above the chimney-piece in this room stands an anemoscope. The paintings in this room are fifty-nine in number. By the door is a large painting by Tintoretto with several nude figures. Over one door is the Beheading of St John and over the other a Cupid drawing his bow, both remarkably well painted. There are, moreover, several portraits by famous artists, some perspective-pieces, a Lucretia, a Susanna, which are all very excellent. In one corner stands a curious striking clock with a fine black case ornamented with gilt figures. The clock does not only tell the time but also the course of the sun. Above stands the knight St. George in silver-gilt of the most excellent workmanship. We were told that it was presented to King William by the Frenchman who made it, and that the latter received a hundred guineas for it. On the table lay a small box of amber with several figures on it, extremely well wrought. The paintings hung high on the walls all round the room are of little account. In one corner was the bust of a Moor very well done from lifeā€”made, indeed, of nothing but coloured stones, with great skill. In another room we saw a prodigiously fine bed of red velvet and costly stuffs; in yet another, in which hung the Czar's portrait, was a most curious clock, of which a description with copper engravings has appeared in London. It has four great round dials, in the middle being a small one showing the hours. Above one sees the course of the sun and moon according to Ptolemy's system and next it the system of Copernicus, with the course of all the planets. The lowest discs have all manner of special divisions. In one of these was written: Samuel Watson, now in London; and in the other: Coventriae fecit. In most of the rooms stood very elegant inlaid tables. The garden round this palace is large, and in it hedges alternate with lawns, yews and flower-beds. The prospect from this garden and the zoological garden next it is most agreeable. On the left hand is the orangery, which is very well and elegantly planned in a straight line with round vaulted chambers at either end. The shrubs were for the most part laurels, but among them were some fine plants. There are no statues here, and only a very wretched and paltry fountain and some mere basins. The walks are extraordinarily large and handsome, especially the middle one. The open space, which is laid out like an amphitheatre, is vastly elegant, though the hedges and bushes on both sides are not fully grown. After we had seen all we drove back to London.