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.
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!
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