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The Ambassadors
Hans Holbein the Younger · Renaissance & Mannerism
- Artist
- Hans Holbein the Younger (c. 1497–1543)
- Date
- 1533
- Dimensions
- 207 x 209.5 cm
- Medium
- Oil on oak panel
- Location
- National Gallery, London, United Kingdom
Holbein’s The Ambassadors is a double portrait of two wealthy young Frenchmen in London in 1533: the diplomat Jean de Dinteville and the bishop Georges de Selve. They stand on either side of a shelf crowded with scientific instruments, books and a lute.
A closer look
The objects form a learned puzzle. There are globes of the heavens and the earth, sundials, a book of arithmetic, a hymn book and a lute with a broken string, perhaps hinting at the religious discord of the time. Across the floor stretches a strange grey shape. Seen from the right side, close to the picture, it turns into a skull: a reminder of death hidden in a celebration of worldly knowledge. A small crucifix half-hidden behind the green curtain offers the hope of salvation.
History of the painting
Jean de Dinteville took the painting home to his château at Polisy in Burgundy, where it remained for generations. After passing through French and English collections, it was bought in 1808 by the Earl of Radnor for Longford Castle in Wiltshire. In 1890 the National Gallery acquired it from the Radnor family, together with two other masterpieces, in one of the most expensive purchases of the 19th century.
A thorough restoration in the 1990s cleaned the surface and reconstructed areas lost to earlier damage, including parts of the stretched skull, which can only be seen properly from the side, close to the right edge of the picture.