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Holbein's The Ambassadors

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Holbein’s The Ambassadors is a very thought provoking painting, absolutely engorged with detail. Aside from the two subjects, there’s a great amount of items in the painting, and many things to note, including the subjects’ garments and the human skull graphic found at the bottom of the frame.
Starting with the gentleman on the left, who is identified as an ambassador by the title of the painting, looks to be someone of high status due to what he is wearing. He is wearing what looks to be an expensive fur coat and an interesting brooch. Also, in his hand he seems to be holding some sort of weapon, perhaps a dagger judging from the short length.
The man on the right, the other ambassador isn’t wearing an outfit as elaborate as his partner. He’s …show more content…
This skull can only be viewed from a specific angle in which you won’t be able to see the rest of the painting. Holbein makes the viewer make a choice, he/she can either choose to focus on viewing the skull properly or the rest of the painting. They can’t both be observed at once. This skull is a very interesting artistic choice to add into the painting because it sort of sticks out like a sore thumb. For people who didn’t know it was indeed a skull at first would wonder what that ‘blotch’ was doing at the bottom of the painting. Maybe some people even thought it was there by error as it certainly could be mistaken for something that should not be in the painting in the first place. When viewed straight on it can even pass for the end of a paintbrush. It is very fascinating that it can only be properly viewed by physically viewing the painting from about a ten degree angle from the right …show more content…
Perhaps one or both of these men are musicians. It is also worthy of noting that one of the strings on the instrument is broken. This could indicate that something could have went wrong or it is maybe an indication of frustration. Perhaps someone got frustrated with learning the music in that open book that they damaged the instrument’s string. Perhaps the string just broke off from too much practise on that one song. Too much practise on that one song because the book is already open to that song and was put away with that song still

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