A Tudor painting that hangs in London's National Gallery has been a topic of debate for centuries. Hans Holbein the Younger's stately portrait of The Ambassadors has many hidden meanings. It depicts Jean de Dinteville, the French ambassador to England and Georges de Selve, the bishop of Lavaur and stand-in ambassador to the Emperor, the Venetian Republic and the Holy See.
The men aged 29 and 25 respectively stand poised and well dressed in front of a rich green curtain, separated by a table of books, scientific objects, and instruments—all symbols of their education and enlightenment. The luxurious details and patterns serve as distractions from a curious object in the foreground - a large anamorphic skull which loses its distortion when viewed from the side. The object is a memento mori -a common Christian practice in which an object evocative of death is always present.
Many believe it is a reference to the morality of the sitters and all those who see the 1533 painting. Either way, death is both prominent and obscured until discovered. An invention of the Early Renaissance, it is meant to be a visual puzzle although it remains unclear why it was given such prominence.
Some speculate that Elizabeth I's mother, Anne Boleyn, then Queen of England might have commissioned it as a gift for Jean de Dinteville. As well as being a double portrait, the painting contains a still life of meticulously rendered objects. Several scientific objects, related to knowing the time and the c.
