Art Foundation: Contextual studies

Yesterday's lesson with Graham was very interesting. People look at paintings and see some as bizarre others at being colourful or just being pretty. In that lesson however I experienced a deep understanding of the message a painter would try to put across in his/her painting.

Everyone sees things differently, it is more or less seen as a fact.
The painting "The Ambassador's Secret" painted by Hans Holbein the Younger (German born) in 1533, shows many things such as the objects in the background being on two levels. There are two different globes - terrestrial planet and celestial, which can indicate heaven and earth. Also the two men in the painting show a scientific (men on the right) and a religious (men on the left) approach, which can all be indicated by their style of clothing as well as the objects there are.


Furthermore the most important thing that most people do not notice when looking at an image from the internet or just an image is that there is a skull right in front of the two men. Hans Holbein skewed (anamorphic perspective) the image of the skull, (which is something that people do today with software like photoshop) and made it so that it can only be seen at an 27 degree angle. If that was not enough well this might be... looking at the left hand corner of the painting which is also a 27 degrees angle, the image of Christ on the cross can be found.

 Christ in the upper corner...

Skull that can be seen at the 27 degree angle

This painting is really interesting with all the hidden images.