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Hanging out in the National Gallery, where all the cool kids are, I came across an art anomaly. The Ambassadors by Hans Holbein the Younger is a fairly standard portrait of two men. However look closer, and you see that it features a crazy slanted skull in the foreground.

It is designed so that when you stand on the right hand side of the painting and look across it, you see a perfectly formed skull.

To me it looks like Hans had an early edition of Photoshop (very early, it was painted in 1533 so maybe CS-20?) and got bored in the middle of transforming the layer.

I don’t doubt that artists of the time made studies on angles. But I love that Holbein managed to try it out in a  commissioned painting. I would have loved to hear that conversation:

Men in fur coats: So what are you going to paint in front of us?

Holbein: I was thinking a skull.

Men in fur coats: A skull? Really?

Holbein: Yes it represents mortality, and the chicks dig it.

Men in fur coats: Well I guess that is ok, a different perspective is always good.

Holbein: Perspective, yes. I do like perspective…

