he back wall"
adjoining Meyer's house was not touched at this time. Ostensibly the
reason was want of funds; but as a matter of fact the Protestant party
(to anticipate this name), which grew strong enough to unseat Meyer
before the year was out, was at this time indifferent to art when not
positively inimical to it.

Whether treating a facade or an interior it was Holbein's custom to make
a flat wall-space assume the most solid-looking forms of Renaissance
architecture. Iselin once said of a facade of Holbein's, that there was
a dog painted on it so naturally that the dogs in the street would run
up and bark at it. And so astounding was the realism with which he threw
out balconies, and added windows, cornices, and statues, and the richest
carvings, pillars, arches, and vistas of every sort, that no eye could
credit them with illusion. Horses neighed in the courtyards, flowers
bloomed in the gardens, dogs leaped beside master or mistress, and
children played in the spacious balconies, or moved to and fro between
the splendid marble pillars and the distant wall. To study the copies
that remain of such works is to be astounded by their feats of
perspective.

Inside would be kindred illusions. Large pictures would seem to be
actually taking place without, and beheld through beautifully carved
archways or windows; while the apparent walls would have niches filled
with superb marble statues and the ceiling be supported by pillars,
behind which people walked and talked or leaned out to watch the chief
scenes.

And so it was with the Council Chamber. But nothing now remains of these
works except fragments and a few drawings for the principal features. So
far as can be judged, each wall had two large scenes; the four pictures
of this period being chosen from the heroic legends of the _Gesta
Romanorum_; the two painted later, from the Old Testament.

But while these large works were going forward Holbein was busy with
many others; private commissions for Froben, occasionally for other
printers, and for altar-pieces or portraits. All through his life his
industry and accomplishment left him small time for leisure or the
dissipations of leisure. Nor is there any year of his life when his work
does not attest a clear eye and a firm hand. These things are their own
certificate of conduct; at any rate, of "worldly" conduct.

* * * * *

In 1522 occurred two important events in his life. His first