Talk:The Ambassadors (Holbein)

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Other languages WikiProject Echo has identified The Ambassadors (Holbein) as a foreign language featured article. You may be able to improve this article with information from the French language Wikipedia.

I intend to try and echo this as soon as I get around to it. Witty lama 04:39, 20 March 2006 (UTC)

What a most certainly enlightening article! I feel as though I know all about The Ambassadors at this point.

So it is an urban myth that the (subliminal) skull was painted because the persons depicted did not pay up?

[edit] Sextant???

I neither see one, nor can I expect one, since the sextant wasn't invented until 1757 (see reflecting instrument) and the octant was not known before 1730. If you can point out what instrument is being mis-labelled, I can try identifying it correctly (old scientific instruments is a hobby of mine).

There is a torquetum and polyhedral sundial on the right and what appear to be two celestial globes (not terrestrial). --Michael Daly (talk) 21:36, 22 November 2007 (UTC)

  • The globe on the lower shelf is terrestrial [1]. I don't know about the instruments, although see this [2]. "The objects on the upper shelf include a celestial globe, a portable sundial and various other instruments used for understanding the heavens and measuring time. Among the objects on the lower shelf is a lute, a case of flutes, a hymn book, a book of arithmetic and a terrestrial globe" say the NG. It would be nice if someone who understands this stuff could write this up. Johnbod (talk) 22:11, 22 November 2007 (UTC)
Sorry, to my fading old eyes, the lower globe looked like an 18th c. illustrated star map I have (with constellation figures draw in). Oh well... I guess I should see the original...
The differences between what is written in the article and what is in the painting suggest to me that the article is, in parts, bordering on nonsense. The French version of this page looks a little closer to reasonable, but my knowledge of art and the topic of the painting precludes my making any changes. I only stumbled here while verifying the links to the sextant page. --Michael Daly (talk) 17:33, 26 November 2007 (UTC)
No knowledge of art should be needed to improve the description of the objects depicted. Unsurprisingly, we don't seem to have anyone with knowledge of both areas. Johnbod (talk) 17:40, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Skull is a signasture?

In my school books, the interpretation of the skull's meaning (stated as fact) is that it's Holbein's signature: the reasoning being that his surname is Hohl + Bein = "hollow bone". 89.76.213.122 (talk) 16:46, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

This is certainly a valid interpretation, though I wouldn't call it a fact. qp10qp (talk) 19:50, 24 April 2008 (UTC)