Holbein's Mementi Mori

366 Escobedo

Chapter 14 Holbein’s Mementi Mori

Libby Karlinger Escobedo

Art historians have long speculated on the meaning of Hans Holbein the Younger’s famous double portrait of the French Ambassadors, painted in England in 1533 (Fig. 14.1). The portrait is notable for its remarkably detailed depiction of two nearly life-size figures flanking a table strewn with astrologi- cal, scientific, and musical objects, and for the distorted skull in the foreground. Intended to be seen from a particular angle or through a special lens, the ana- morphic skull is simultaneously revealed and concealed, a sort of visual trick referencing Death. The trickster skull, in combination with the specific visual identifiers of the two men shown, is instrumental in evaluating the picture’s meaning. As the two ambassadors stand, with the evidence of their worldly accomplishments arrayed on the table between them, Death sneaks in unno- ticed. Without a doubt, the painting was meant to be “read,” with the many objects and details constituting a visual “text” which viewers were meant to decipher. The unique combination of elements composed by Holbein trans- forms the portrait into a Dance of Death. Hans Holbein the Younger (1497/8-1543) is perhaps best known for his royal portraits, executed during his years as court painter to Henry VIII of England. However, Holbein’s tenure as a salaried artist to the court was relatively brief, lasting only the last five years of his life, 1538-1543. Prior to this period, Holbein worked in Basel and in England, first in 1526-1528, and then, primarily among members of the Henrician court, from 1532 onwards.1 In addition to portrai- ture, Holbein executed religious paintings (though none after 1526), and book illustrations, such as those destined to be the woodcuts of the Dance of Death series, published in 1538. Holbein’s life spanned the tumultuous decades of the Reformation, and his involvement with leading humanists of the early six- teenth century, both on the Continent and in England, influenced his work as an artist in direct and indirect ways. The Ambassadors, now in the National Gallery in London, is a full-length double portrait of two French ambassadors, Jean de Dinteville (1504-1557) and

1 For Holbein’s English portraits, refer to Susan Foister, Holbein in England (London, 2006).

Figure 14.1 Hans Holbein the Younger (1497-1543). Jean de Dinteville and Georges de Selve (“The Ambassadors”), 1533. Oil on oak, 207 × 209.5 cm. Bought, 1890 (NG1314). National Gallery, London/Art Resource, NY.

Georges de Selve, Bishop of Lavaur (1509-1542).2 The painting originated from the hectic diplomatic activity of 1532-1533, the years directly preceding Henry VIII’s break with the Church in Rome. In the spring of 1527, the possibility of an annulment of Henry’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon was first raised on the basis of dynastic and personal considerations. In October 1532, Francis I agreed

2 Properly titled the Double Portrait of Jean de Dinteville and Georges de Selve. The National Gallery acquired the painting in 1890 from the Earl of Radnor, in whose collection at Longford Castle the painting had been since early in the nineteenth century. For a complete provenance, refer to Mary Hervey, Holbein’s “Ambassadors” (London, 1900) and John North, The Ambassadors’ Secret: Holbein and the World of the Renaissance (London, 2002), 5-9.