2-693-918 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

'The Ambassadors', 1533, (1909). Portrait of Jean de Dinteville (left), French Ambassador to England in 1533, and Georges de Selve, Bishop of Lavaur, who visited him in London. The painting is famous for its mysterious skull painted in anamorphic perspective in the foreground of the picture. This only appears to the viewer as an anatomically perfect skull if the painting is approached from a certain angle. Painting in the National Gallery, London. From Holbein - Masterpieces in Colour, by S. L. Bensusan. [T. C. & E. C. Jack, Frederick A. Stokes Co., London & New York, 1909]