Holbein's Ambassadors painting documentary, The National Gallery London, (symbols and meaning), 1533
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- čas přidán 22. 08. 2024
- Holbein's Ambassadors painting documentary, The National Gallery London, (symbols and meaning), 1533
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The most famous symbol in this work is the distorted skull which is placed in the bottom centre of the composition. The skull is shown in an anamorphic, distorted perspective and is meant to be a visual puzzle so that the viewer must look at the painting from high on the right side, or low on the left side to see the skull in accurate proportion.
Who are the figures in the painting?
Opinions about who these two men were really differed when the painting was first acquired by the National Gallery. It’s now thought they were two French lads.
In 1890, Sidney Colvin was the first person to suggest the figure on the left as Jean de Dinteville, French ambassador to the court of Henry VIII at the time. This was seemingly confirmed when the picture was cleaned and it was revealed that his seat of Polisy is one of only four French places marked on the globe in the painting- and Jean was the Lord of Polisy.
It’s thought he visited London five times in total - when he was painted, this would have been his second visit - and he was pretty reluctant to be in England. He wrote a lot of letters so we known how he felt about the tour of duty but he never actually mentions Holbein. He lodged in Bridewell Palace and he was ill for most of the time, with something that sounded a lot like malaria.
We know from the signature that this double portrait was painted in 1533. This was an extremely momentous year for the English royal family. This was the year Henry VIII divorced Catherine of Aragon and married Anne Boyleyn, and their daughter Elizabeth was born. She went on to become the Virgin Queen, Elizabeth I’s who ruled for 45 years.
It was the publication of Mary Hervey's book which was written in 1900, that formally identified the man on the right.
She decided he was Georges de Selve, who was the Bishop of Lavaur, after tracing a seventeenth-century manuscript which mentioned the painting. Georges de Selve is not wearing religious robes because it’s thought he was not consecrated until 1534 because he was actually too young at the time. He’s been a bishop since he was 18 and the book he’s leaning on says in his 25th year so he’s only 24 - and was consecrated the following year, when he turned 25. Instead of bishop’s robes, he’s wearing a browny-purple damask, which to our eye looks fairly plain, but those dark colours would have taken a lot of dye and been really expensive.
Georges was very concerned by the division between the protestant Lutherans and the catholic church - and he was very concerned about Henry VIII’s break with Rome. The king had recently divorced his wife, which was something not allowed in the catholic doctrine, so he had created his own denomination of Christianity, called the Church of England. The closest we have to a meaning for this painting - and all the mysterious objects around the painting, is based on this unsettled, unhappy relationship between the Lutherans and the catholic church.
The objects in the Ambassadors are split in two - on the top shelf, everything represents the heavenly, celestial world and on the bottom shelf all the objects represent the terrestrial world, life on Earth. And the two men are linked to the earthly AND heavenly realms as they stand between the two-tiered structure.
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Excellent coverage of the symbols and meaning of Holbein's The Ambassadors. Interesting clip @ 00:23 ;-D.
Fantastic! Thanks for coming back!
No problem, it's been filmed for ages so there's no excuse!
I knew about the skull before I saw the painting so when I visited the National Gallery I knelt down at the side so I could see it properly. Then I noticed a whole load of people all looking at me as if I was some sort of lunatic 😳
Hahaha 😂
The best way to do it! Haha
Thank you for your very informative video I remember going to London just to see the painting after seeing a documentary on the BBC I think it was an open University program, most enjoyable..
Great job!
Thanks very much, glad you enjoyed it x
The skull is only accurate from a particular point on the right hand side, not from below-left.
Would Holbein have done all the painting himself or would he have had assistants for the more mundane work?
The National Portrait Gallery has got a good article on this. They say there is no documentary evidence that Holbein employed assistants in Basel or in England. But in Basel he was offered a licence to sell his work abroad, which might suggest a sizeable production. bit.ly/2YIMpC3
@@arthistorygirl2327 Interesting, thank you. Never seen a squirrel with toffee like fur!