The Ambassadors, Hans Holbein The Younger, 1533

Like many struggling artists Hans Holbein The Younger was trying to get a name out there for himself. None of his paintings had given him the success he wanted. He had to do something great, something different. He went with an anamorphic painting. It worked. Holbein's painting The Ambassadors created much talk about him. Holbein would finally get the recognition he wanted, and it was the  the only painting that Holbein signed and dated. 

Some say that the only reason Holbein painted this painting was to show off and obtain recognition. Maybe that's true; however, when studying the painting there is so much more to it. The two men in the painting are most appropriately ambassadors. The man on the left is Jean de Dinteville, aged 29, who is the ambassador of France to England. He wears fine silks and a fur coat, all decorative and super expensive to show his wealth. He wears the order of Saint Michael around his neck, but on his hat the badge is decorated with a skull. He stands with a wide stance to symbolize his power. He also has an extremely cool beard. His friend on the right, Georges de Selve, is a bishop, but on occasion he was the ambassador of the Venetian Republic and to the Emperor. He is dressed more modestly, however his coat would still be rather pricey. His beard is not as cool. 

The shelves in the painting contain many objects of importance. There are two globes in the painting. One globe on the top shelf is celestial and the globe on the bottom shelf is terrestrial. There are suggestions that say the painting is intended to have three levels to it. The top shelf meant to symbolize the heavens due to the instruments used to understand the heavens and measuring time. The second shelf represents life, which contains music and a religious text. The third is the floor which is death represented by the skull. The lute on the second shelf has a broken string and placed next to a lutheran hymn book which signifies the strife between the church and scholars. The instruments on the top shelf have all been frozen to 10:30 a.m. on April 11th to show that time is frozen and the future may hold something very different. Another suggestion holds that the painting was intended to be hung above a staircase so that when viewers would climb the stairs the would be frightened by the skull they did not see before. This was supposed to be a reminder that death is upon us all and we cannot avoid its calling.

End note: The floor of this painting is extremely similar to the floor in Westminster Abbey: