Ambassadors. The Ambassadors is a painting by Hans Holbein the Younger.
Also known as Jean de Dinteville and Georges de Selve, it was created in the Tudor period, in the same year Elizabeth I was born. As well as being a double portrait, the painting contains a still life of several meticulously rendered objects, the meaning of which is the cause of much debate.
It also incorporates a much-cited example of anamorphosis in painting. It is part of the collection at the National Gallery in London.
Although a German-born artist who spent most of his time in England, Holbein displayed the influence of Early Dutch painters in this work. This influence can be noted most outwardly in the use of oil paint, the use of which for panel paintings had been developed a century before in Early Netherlandish painting.
What is most Flemish of Holbein's use of oils is his use of the medium to render meticulous details that are mainly symbolic: as Jan van Eyck and the Master of Flémalle used extensive imagery to link their subjects to divinity, Holbein used symbols to link his figures to show the same things on the table. Among the clues to the figures' explorative associations are a selection of scientific instruments including two globes, a shepherd's dial, a quadrant, a torquetum, and a polyhedral sundial, as well as various textiles including the floor mosaic, based on a design from Westminster Abbey, and
Also known as Jean de Dinteville and Georges de Selve, it was created in the Tudor period, in the same year Elizabeth I was born. As well as being a double portrait, the painting contains a still life of several meticulously rendered objects, the meaning of which is the cause of much debate.
It also incorporates a much-cited example of anamorphosis in painting. It is part of the collection at the National Gallery in London.
Although a German-born artist who spent most of his time in England, Holbein displayed the influence of Early Dutch painters in this work. This influence can be noted most outwardly in the use of oil paint, the use of which for panel paintings had been developed a century before in Early Netherlandish painting.
What is most Flemish of Holbein's use of oils is his use of the medium to render meticulous details that are mainly symbolic: as Jan van Eyck and the Master of Flémalle used extensive imagery to link their subjects to divinity, Holbein used symbols to link his figures to show the same things on the table. Among the clues to the figures' explorative associations are a selection of scientific instruments including two globes, a shepherd's dial, a quadrant, a torquetum, and a polyhedral sundial, as well as various textiles including the floor mosaic, based on a design from Westminster Abbey, and
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