n with halberds. His two
brothers were also painters; only a few paintings are left of the elder,
Ambrose, and none of the younger brother Bruno; both died prematurely.
In the year 1520, Holbein was presented with the freedom of the town of
Basel.

Switzerland held constant communications with Germany and the
Netherlands, but less with Italy. A number of painters lived at that
time in Germany, whose names have not been recorded by any German
Vasari, and their master works have been long neglected. In Holbein's
time Albrecht Durer enjoyed the primary reputation. Martin Schoen had
preceded him at Colmar, in Alsace; Manuel painted at Bern, Hans Asper at
Zurich, and at Basel itself there were other painters besides Holbein.
Half a century before him the _Dance of Death_ had been painted,
after the disaster of a plague, on the walls of a church-yard at Basel.

The council-hall at Basel gave occupation to architects from 1508 till
1520. It is believed that Holbein painted three of the walls, only one
of which (hid behind old tapestry, and discovered again in 1817) has
escaped the ravages of time. It represents M. Curius Dentatus cooking
his dinner, whilst the Samnites offer silver plates with money. "The
last Judgment," where a pope, with priests and monks, sink into the
flames of hell, is not the work of Holbein, but was done in 1610, during
good Protestant times.

A good number of stories are told of Holbein. Unable to pay his debts in
a tavern, he discharged the bill by decorating the walls with paintings
of flowers. Another time, for a similar purpose, he covered the walls
all over with "the merry dance of peasants;" and in order to deceive one
of his employers, he painted his own legs beneath the high scaffolding,
that the watchful citizen should not suspect his having abandoned his
work to carouse in wine-cellars. Here our biographer gravely says, "a
man of spirit could not be expected to sit quietly painting the whole
day long in the heat of the sun, or in the rain; if he saw a good friend
go to the tavern, he felt disposed to follow him." Holbein did not keep
the best company; but in this he resembled Rembrandt, who said, that
when he wished to amuse himself, he avoided the company of the great,
which put a restraint upon him; "for pleasure," he adds, "consists in
perfect liberty only." Holbein no doubt felt a contempt for the great
people of his time, as they did not understand much about his art, which
he valued