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The Ambassadors has been part of London's National Gallery collection since its purchase in 1890. It was extensively restored in 1997, leading to criticism, in particular that the skull's dimensions had been changed. Demonstration of how the skull image in "The Ambassadors" may be viewed head on, through a tube
Two anamorphic drawings by Leonardo da Vinci, 1515 Holbein's The Ambassadors with a memento mori anamorph skull in the foreground, 1533 Viewed from the correct oblique angle, the diagonal in The Ambassadors transforms into an undistorted memento mori.
Two dimensional art objects generally use the assumption of a single viewpoint to give the illusion of depth (monocular depth cues), Hans Holbein's The Ambassadors (1533) is no different in that sense, however, Holbein also includes an anamorphic image of a skull which has a completely different view point in order to accurately view the object.
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Hans Holbein the Younger (UK: / ˈ h ɒ l b aɪ n / HOL-byne, [2] US: / ˈ h oʊ l b aɪ n, ˈ h ɔː l-/ HOHL-byne, HAWL-; [3] [4] [5] German: Hans Holbein der Jüngere; c. 1497 [6] – between 7 October and 29 November 1543) was a German-Swiss painter and printmaker who worked in a Northern Renaissance style, and is considered one of the greatest portraitists of the 16th century. [7]
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He studied for a BA (Hons) and an M Phil. [3] In the early 1960s, using both his historical and optical skills, he developed a unique theory about the meaning of the skull in Holbein's painting The Ambassadors, [1] in which he conjectured that it is designed to be viewed face on, through a simple, straight blown glass tube, acting as a lens. [4]
The most notable and famous of Holbein's symbols in the work is the skewed skull, rendered in anamorphic perspective, which is placed in the painting's bottom centre. It is meant to be a visual puzzle as the viewer must approach the painting nearly from the side to see the form morph into an accurate rendering of a human skull.