A world of discovery is tainted by a dark shadow in Hans Holbein’s The Ambassadors

In this painting, done in London in 1533, Hans Holbein freeze-frames the Renaissance world. Two young men stand next to an array of objects that signify discovery, knowledge and the arts. A globe of the world, showing America, shares space with a lute, an astronomical globe, a Turkish rug used as a tablecloth, and a selection of mathematical instruments. These things speak of a widening world, in which Britain during the reign of Henry VIII was starting to play a bigger part. But something smears across the lower part of the painting, grisly and absurd: looked at from the correct angle, this distorted image reveals itself as a skull. Death haunts the age of discovery.
Illustration: Photograph: National Gallery/Corbis/Derek Bayes/Lebrecht