Social Studies: Holbein's The Ambassadors

Image source: http://www.idehist.uu.se/distans/ilmh/Ren/holbein-ambassadors.jpg

Larger interactive image Here

Some things to notice about the painting:

The two shelves of the table which form the dominant horizontals in the painting serve to contrast the terrestrial realm with the objects on the lower shelf including a terrestrial globe to the celestial realm with the astronomical instruments on the upper shelf including a celestial globe.

The understanding of the essential limitation of human thought helps to explain several details in the painting:

• The different faces of the polyhedral sundial on the upper shelf are not consistent.

• The lute on the lower shelf has a broken string.

Dinteville's (on the left) dagger has his age inscribed (29 I believe).

De Selve who rests his arm on a book on which is inscribed his age (25 I believe).

Sources: http://employees.oneonta.edu/farberas/arth/ARTH214/Ambassadors_Home.html