Holbein’s painting the ‘Ambassadors’ has been studied very much since it was published..
Today’s obsession with the glittering and deadly court of King Henry VIII would not exist without the artistic talents of Hans Holbein the Younger. Holbein was a German Catholic artist and official painter to the king, brought the Tudor age to life through more than 100 portraits that masterfully captured the unique expressions of their sitters (his subjects included Thomas More, Thomas Cromwell, King Henry, and many of his six wives).

The artist’s most iconic painting, however, eludes direct interpretation. Jean de Dinteville and Georges de Selve, also known as The Ambassadors (1533) has been heavily scrutinized by centuries of historians. The double portrait, proudly displayed at London’s Natitional Gallery remains a fascinating enigma within which every detail seems to suggest multiple meanings.

In many ways, The Ambassadors reflects the conflict between the king and the Catholic Church. In it, the French ambassador to England, Jean de Dinterville is puffed up in silk, velvet, and lynx fur on the left; he’d commissioned the unusually large and elaborate portrait to hang in his chateau at Polisy. An undoubtedly thankless part of Dinteville’s job was to report back to Catholic France about the goings-on of the English court.

His modestly dressed friend Georges de Selve, a cleric and occasional diplomat (soon to be consecrated Bishop of Levaur, France), stands on the right side of the painting. De Selve had spent much of his career trying in vain to stem the tide of Lutheran Reform and reunify the Catholic Church. He may have been in London on similar business.

As a result, these two ambassadors found themselves in a helpless position, witnessing events unfold that they were unable to influence. (It seems prophetic that Dinteville was present at the baptism of Elizabeth, who would become the powerful monarch of a Protestant nation.)
Yet this painting manages to redeem their plight, contextualizing the politics of the day within a philosophical and religious framework with one unifying theme: the Renaissance concept that established man in the central position of creation, uniquely engaged with both the earthly and heavenly realms. Under this purview, every element in the work reflects a cyclical narrative of humanity, death, and salvation.