anamorphosis, the optical effect of the skull in the painting The Ambassadors

Hans Holbein the Younger paints the work The Ambassadors to celebrate the visit of Bishop Georges de Selve, accredited to the Holy See, while on the left stands the French ambassador in London: Jean de Dinteville, who commissions the painting. Dinteville wears a heavy black coat and holds in his hand a dagger closed in a golden sheath.

The two men are in the prime of their lives: rich, young, powerful, and cultured. They look toward the viewer and are depicted full-length. Their garments are sumptuous and clearly reflect their social and economic status. We know their ages at the time of the painting as they are indicated in two accessories. Jean de Dinteville was 29 years old, as written in Latin on the handle of the dagger he holds in his right hand; de Selve was 25, as indicated on the edge of the book on which he rests his elbow. The two men lean on a piece of furniture with two levels that separates them.

1. above, an oriental carpet serves as a base for scientific and exploration instruments such as quadrants, compasses, astrolabes and a celestial globe
2. on the lower shelf, objects for intellectual and artistic activities. A book of hymns by Martin Luther. A mathematics book left slightly open by a bookmark. A lute with a broken string, a terrestrial globe

A crucifix also appears in the upper left, barely visible in profile, above the green curtain that forms the background. Perhaps in reference to the strong political and religious conflict in Europe following Martin Luther's call for the reform of the Catholic Church.

The large distorted and elongated skull immediately stands out, becoming recognizable only when the painting is viewed from a specific point on the right. But why is it distorted? It is the intended effect of anamorphosis

This painting is anything but a simple celebratory portrait. Holbein is an illusionist of painting. He does not merely depict faces and garments: he stages an intellectual game, scattering clues, symbols, and hints. The scene is filled with objects that seem borrowed from an astronomy study, a library, a music room. Each element tells something.

At the center, in the foreground, comes the twist. An element that disturbs and disorients. An elongated diagonal shadow, like an illusion: it is not immediately clear what it is. Only by moving to the side, with an oblique gaze, does the trick reveal itself: it is a perfectly shaped skull created through the technique of anamorphosis, a perspectival distortion used to hide and reveal at the same time. A device worthy of an alchemical artist.

But why does Holbein place a skull, symbol of death, right there, between two young, ambitious ambassadors surrounded by objects celebrating knowledge and power? This is the heart of the mystery. That skull is not a mistake. It is a memento mori, a warning about the destiny that unites all human beings: fragile, limited, finite.

It is enough to observe two tiny clues: on the sheath of Jean de Dinteville's dagger the number "29" is engraved, his age at the time of the portrait, while Georges de Selve, more reserved, rests his elbow on a book bearing the number "25". Two almost invisible digits that reveal far more than they seem.

The strange oblique stain thus appears as an abstract presence, difficult to decipher. The word anamorphosis derives from Greek and means reconstructed form, encompassing all those perspectival distortions and optical illusions that spread as pictorial games between the 16th and 17th centuries. It is in every respect an aberration of the image, in which the relationships of height and width are overturned to the human eye, only to recombine when observed from a precise viewpoint, or through the use of lenses or concave or convex mirrors.

These incomprehensible images all share the use of a distortion technique that pushes perspective to its extreme limits, constructing illusory spaces of perception.