molest him, if you value your head." And as second-hand heads, though
plentiful about those days, were found to be of no value, even to the
original owner, Holbein remained unmolested.

Holbein is known chiefly by his portraits. He painted some historical
and sacred pictures; but though they all bear witness to his genius, it
can hardly be denied that they also show that that genius was not suited
to such works. Holbein had an objective perception;--that is, his mind
received impressions entirely uninfluenced by its own character or
condition; and his pictures, therefore, seem like literal transcripts
of what was before his eyes. He nowhere shows that he had an idea of
abstract beauty, or the power of generalizing from individuals, or that
he was at all discontented with the subjects which he painted; so that
his works leave an impression of absolute faithfulness. But to suppose,
therefore, that his portraits have merely the merit of reproducing the
external facts of Nature, like photographs, would do him wrong; for he
was faithful to expression as well as form, and has perpetuated upon
his canvas the voluptuous sweetness of Anne Boleyn, the courtliness and
manly grace of Wyatt, and the severity, the energy, and the penetrating
judgment of Sir Thomas More. His portrait of the last is one of the
greatest portraits ever painted. Some competent critics consider it the
greatest. It is so real, so human, that we might be well content, if one
in twenty of the actual men we meet were half as real and human; and it
expresses, with equal strength and subtilty, the large and noble nature
of the man. Holbein was a great colorist, and imitated all the rich
and tender hues of Nature, in their delicate and almost imperceptible
gradations, with a minute truthfulness which is quite marvellous.

This being the character of his mind, it would hardly be supposed that
he could produce such a work as the great Dance of Death, which has