Hans Holbein: 'The Ambassadors'

Erhard Schön was just one of the famous anamorphic artists but one particular painting is one of the most famous pieces. The Ambassadors by Hans Holbein has been said to be of the most superb quality and, yet, is mystifying for its time. The buzz about this piece is not based solely on the anamorphic image but also on the way it was depicted and the items depicted around it.

Fred Leeman. Hidden Images. Games of Perception, Anamorphic Art, Illusion: From the Renaissance to the Present.

The painting portrays two men, Jean de Dinteville and Georges de Selve in front of a green damask curtain. They are shown with many objects on a table between them but just below this table is a brown mass which does not obviously belong in this piece. The only way to correctly see what this mass is is to either stand (or sit) close to the bottom right at a sharp angle or to use a glass tube directly in front of the mass (second photo below). Some believe it was made in this manner so it could be placed in a stairwell, when the viewer walked up the stairs they would be in the perfect position to view the anamorph.

Fred Leeman. Hidden Images. Games of Perception, Anamorphic Art, Illusion: From the Renaissance to the Present.

Edgar Samuel. "Death in the Glass- A New View of Holbein's 'Ambassadors'". The Burlington Magazine, Vol 105.

There are many theories as to why this is here but there is not a definite answer. According to Fred Leeman’s book, Hidden images: Games of Perception, Anamorphic Art, Illusion: From the Renaissance to the Present, “It has been suggested that this skull, this “hollow bone” (in German, “hohle Bein”) is a rebus, a pictorial pun on the name of the artist” (13). Around the time this piece was made in 1533 using puns like this were common, this could be a reason for the skull but.

Unlike Erhard Schön, Holbein did not create any images that were wholly anamorphic. This is a reason why it’s unique along with the fact that there is no other image created from this period that is quite like it. Yes, there were anamorphic images produced from this time period but none of them used the anamorph in this way; leaving it in plain site without trying to hide it. According to Hagi Kenaan’s article “The ‘Unusual Character’ of Holbein’s “Ambassadors”” from Artibus et Historie, Schön’s woodcuts “hide more than they reveal” (65). In contrast, Holbein’s painting shows much more than it hides, but what it does hide is the interesting aspect.

There is much more that can be said about the images on the table but that’s a whole other post!

Catoptical and Anaoptical Anamorphosis

As seen in the previous posts, some mediums of anamorphic images was on paper or on canvas. These are not the only two ways to represent an anamorphic image, there are also catoptical and anaoptical.

Catoptical

Catoptical is when an observer looks down on the image. The two most common forms are done by using mirrors in the shapes of cones and cylinders. There is also pyramidal anamorphosis where the mirror is a pyramid shape but this is much rarer and I could not find much information beyond this picture:

http://latander.livejournal.com/216413.html

The origins of cones and cylinders are obscure but Niceron and DuBreuil discuss these in books dating back to the 1600s.

Cone anamorphosis is prepared by geometric means. One must take an image and encapsulate it in a circular grid, once this is done the grid and image must be inverted.

This image looks correct when a conical mirror is placed in the center and is observed from above. Here is a modern example where it’s very easy to see how the image looks with and without the mirror.

http://www.anamorphosis.com/gallery.html

Another type of catoptical is called cylindrical anamorphosis. This is where a cylindrical mirror is placed on top of an image that has been distorted in a certain manner.

Philip Hickin has an algebraic equation to create this:

If someone wishes to try this, here is his explanation from his article, “Anamorphosis” from The Mathematical Gazette (1992).

“x and y are the image coordinates, and r and θ are the polar coordinates of the distorted drawing. The constant a is for scaling, while b is a constant to take the line y = 0 beyond the viewing cylinder’s diameter, and k determines how far the picture will wrap round the cylinder.”

This cylindrical image is of Charles I and is unique in one way. There is a skull that can be hidden under the mirror, once the mirror is removed the skull is visible and it becomes a memento mori which means, more or less, remember your mortality. It’s a thought that dates back to antiquity to remind people that there is more to life than material things.

Charles I (Post 1649)

Jurgis Baltrusaitis. Anamorphic Art, p.107

Anoptical

Anoptical is observed when the viewer looks up at an image. This has been best executed on ceilings and has been considered illusionism and tromp-l’oeil but it is executed in the same manner as anamorphic images so, from my research thus far, it seems it is labeled whatever an author feels like labeling it. Many Baroque churches used this to create a new look on ceilings to make them appear taller or even imitate sculptural details. One ceiling done well in particular is the ceiling of the corridor to the apartments of Saint Ignatius in Il Gesù painted by Andrea Pozzo from 1682.

Corridor to the apartments of Saint Ignatius, Il Gesù

Fred Leeman. Hidden Images. Games of Perception, Anamorphic Art, Illusion: From the Renaissance to the Present., p.38

The ceiling is actually curved but the anamorphic painting makes it appear flat and highly ornamented.

Color of corridor to Saint Ignatius apartments

Leeman, p.80.

Here you can see how the correct perspective changes the way the corridor looks.

With these different types, you can see how anamorphism took on many different directions but all accomplished the same thing.

Erhard Schön: Beyond Entertainment

Da Vinci was the first to draw an anamorphic image but in the 1500’s they took anamorphism beyond just a child’s eye. An artist named Erhard Schön created a woodcut he called Vexierbilder (secret images).

This woodcut was not done to entertain the viewer but to hide his political message from those he did not want to see it. The image looks almost to be a confused, mottled mess but upon further glance one sees that the edges include small images. Once the anamorphic image becomes clear, the little images around the edges become the accompaniment to the four faces depicted in an anamorphic way. This piece depicts four European rulers: Charles V, Ferdinand of Austria, Pope Paul III, and Francis I. People he apparently did not agree with politically.

Schön not only created images that were politically charged, he also created erotic imagery that was “taboo” for his era. In his piece, Out, You Old Fool, Schön depicts a young woman who is enticing an older man.

If you look closely you see she is actually steeling money and handing it to a younger man behind the curtain. There’s even a fool peering around the corner, alluding to the man being a fool for thinking a young woman would want to be with him. Once

you turn the piece you see the distorted image becomes the young man and woman engaged in an exotic embrace. This image would be one he would want to hide because this was a sexual image of a man and a woman together. Nude women were the norm but a piece depicting a nude male was almost unheard of.

Schön created numerous anamorphic woodblock images. Here is a link to one of his pieces in the British Museum that seemingly looks like a reference to the biblical story of Jonah and the whale. Once the image is looked at in the correct perspective, one sees the hidden image of a “squatting and defecating peasant.”

Although these pieces are all done by using the correct perspective of the viewer, there are more ways to look at anamorphic images. Perhaps this will be my next question to answer: Besides paintings and woodcuts done on paper/canvas what other methods were used in anamorphism to show the correct perspective of a piece?

The Wealthy Take Anamorphosis as Their Own

Anamorphosis does not have a definite start but it seems that Da Vinci was one of the first to document his findings on distorted images in his book, Codex Atlanticus, where he demonstrates this kind of distorted image with the drawing a child’s eye.

It is interesting to note that these sort of images were seen as “charms” to the wealthy classes when they were first around. Daniel Collins calls them “perceptual oddities” from his article “Anamorphosis and the Eccentric Observer: History, Technique and Current Practice.” The wealthy would likely own a piece of art or, in rare cases, have an entire room made up of these anamorphic images. This was a status symbol to some and to others, these were grotesque, distorted images. King Edward IV had an image painted of himself in the anamorphic style, something a commoner could not afford to do and most certainly never be able to afford a painter who could achieve it at the level the King’s is painted at.

After doing a bit more research I noticed that optics and lenses were becoming common around the 1800s. They were using lenses to fix astigmatism as well as use in telescopes. This idea of distorted images becoming clear was not just from the standpoint of the viewer in front of an image but from another form of optics- being lenses. I’m sure the usage of lenses was a very important factor to the inception and idea of anamorphosis in the 1800s.

Anamorphosis: Understanding a Form of Art

Anamorphosis was a kind of art that was popular around the 1600 and 1700's. It is a distortion of an image in which the viewer can only optically see it correctly from a certain view point.

Photo credit: http://wiki.bennington.edu/wiki/DRAWING

This is a modern example of a corrdor painted in the anamorphic manner.

I want to find out more about anamorphosis and the different ways the images can be seen by using mirrors or just by the correct vantage point. I want to see if the different ways the images were rendered was for special purposes besides just entertaining the viewer. I plan on researching and reading other's articles and journals; whether it be another art historian or someone just as interested in anamorphic art. I will share my thoughts about my research and ideas I come across here and try to form an opinion about why it was used in most situations.

As an art historian myself this subject is fascinating to me. Seeing how an art form that originated in the 16th century is still relevant today is something I find quite interesting.