The Ambassadors' Secret : Holbein and the World of the Renaissance

by John North

Book Overview

"The Ambassadors' Secret" is a radical reinterpretation of one of the world s most famous paintings. Holbein s celebrated portrait of two French diplomats at the court of Henry VIII has usually been... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 184212661X
• ISBN13: 9781842126615
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: Orion Paperbacks
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.8" x 1.4" x 5.1"

Customer Reviews

Gives a Well-Known Work New Meaning Five Centuries Later

Author John North likens the title of the well-known National Gallery painting, "The Ambassadors" to calling a scene of the Christmas nativity, "Joseph and Mary". Indeed Holbein the Younger's 1533 painting of two French ambassadors at the English court of Henry VIII inspires thinking of symbolism immediately due to the array of scientific instruments depicted between the two subjects and the distorted scull placed below them. North exhaustively examines each item in the scene and ties each to themes dominating the politics of the day such as the growing friction between Henry VIII and Rome and the overall fascination of royal courts with science, alchemy, astrology, and astronomy. Several lines through the work are examined for their thematic relevance of the objects they connect and bisect, and other elements such as horoscopes are overlaid on the work for analysis. Included in the analysis is the setting of the exact time of the "sitting" to 4pm on Good Friday. It is clear that North came upon this subject from his past work investigating similar devices employed in the written works of Chaucer, and he presents a convincing argument here as well though his work is heavy of background information that tends to distract from the thesis rather than to support it in many ways. An interesting read, and true "fans" will be interested to know that Good Friday 2008 will mark the 25th 19-year Easter cycle since 1533. Is that some sort of silver jubilee?

Dissecting a masterpiece

Previous interpretations of this enigmatic painting, far more than a mere dual portrait of Jean de Dinteville and Georges de Selve, focussed upon symbols of Catholic, melancholy momento mori. Reminders of death abound: the skull (anamorphic representations were common - note the NPG portrait of Edward VI), the broken lute string, a world turned upside down (alluding to the Reformation), references to a universe divided, and a crucifix to remind man of Jesus' sacrifice, death and redemption. North offers a radical, thorough interpretation of the religious and secular objects, astronomical devices, geometrical patterns of the floor, and, of course, the floating diagonal skull, relating them all to April 11, 1533, at 4:00 pm, Good Friday. He shies away from the political/religious schism of the day, stating it cannot be proved nor disproved. Far more sophisticated than Dan Brown's silly, simplistic "Da Vinci Code" (the bane of art historians, legitimate as seeing faces in cloud formations), North proposes the geometrical lines of the piece, once extended and analyzed, are repeatedly at 27 degrees; significant, as 27 is divisible by three, the number of the Holy Trinity. Jesus was supposedly crucified at age 33, precisely 1,500 years before this painting. One could conclude Holbein's work contains subtle references to the Crucifixion and Golgotha, often represented as a mount of skulls (the present day site of the supposed tomb in Jerusalem contains an enormous, naturally formed skull in the rockface). A spiritual reminder to remain moral during troubled times, but perhaps not the previously assumed political statement. It is intriguing to note that Holbein, the German born court painter of Henry VIII, was a friend of astronomer and mathematician Nicolaus Kratzer. The arguments are brilliantly realized, although not easily followed unless one has extensive knowledge of the period. Why this painting? Why did Holbein paint this in 1533? Fifteen hundred years after the Crucifixion, the End of Days, the Apocalypse, seemed imminent. Charles V sacked Rome in 1527, Luther's Protestant heresy threatened Catholicism, Renaissance humanism clashed with medieval piety, a pregnant Anne Boleyn (Holbein's patroness) would be crowned Queen of England in less than two months' time - the stability, security of the old order had disappeared in the blink of an eye. This book, over 400 dense pages long and extensively annotated, is one of the finest examples of art historical research I have ever encountered - innovative, securely grounded in history, religious speculation, art, and mathematics. A perfect reflection, indeed, of the era.

Understand the difference between looking and seeing

Art, history, religion, alchemy - these and more are the tantalizing ingredients with which John David North creates a singular work. "The Ambassadors' Secret" is a look at Hans Holbein's painting of Jean de Dinteville and Georges de Selve, two important 27-year-old Frenchmen who were in London in 1533. Even on the surface of things, this portrait is an unusual work: the two Ambassadors stand at either side of a curious collection of bric-a-brac that seems to be the real focus of the painting. North shows us how these items can be interpreted to determine a number of things, such as the date on which the two men are depicted (April 11th, 1533 - Good Friday). He discusses the nature and significance of the rhomboid shape at the men's feet, a geometrically perfect distortion of a human skull. Was the artist merely showing off by throwing in such a diabolically complex element, or was the skull meant to be a comment on the fleeting nature of life compared to the higher forces (time, the elements, religion) alluded to by the knickknacks on the shelves? Why is one string on the lute broken? Why does the painting suggest so many multiples of 3, even the men's ages, 3 x 3 x 3? Possible answers to these and many other questions are addressed by North, and once you've read this book, you will delight in looking at the painting again and seeing all the things you overlooked whenever you first encountered it. Whether you approach this book for serious inquiry into an obviously intentional riddle, or just for entertaining scholarly conjecture about the intent of one of history's great painters, you are sure to enjoy it.