The Ambassadors
by Hans Holbein the Younger
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The painting The Ambassadors by Hans Holbein the Younger depicts the meeting in London in 1533 of two life-size French diplomats. Jean de Dinteville, 29 years old, on the left, representing political power, wears the medal of the Order of Saint Michael. Georges de Selve, 25 years old, Bishop of Lavaur, on the right, representing religious power, came to visit Dinteville at Easter before departing between May 23 and June 4.
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Hans Holbein the Younger, The Ambassadors
oil on oak panel, 207 × 209.5 cm
London, National Gallery
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ambassadors_(Holbein)
Hans Holbein the Younger, Self-Portrait, 1542
Florence, Uffizi Gallery
Georges de Selve, sometimes suspected of Protestant sympathies for having adopted several of Martin Luther's ideas, belonged to a group of Gallican reformist prelates committed to the reforms and close to Francis I or his sister Margaret of Navarre. Refusing to break with Rome, he tried to reconcile Christians within the Church.
Jean de Dinteville, Lord of Polisy and Bailiff of Troyes, was on a diplomatic mission to mediate between Henry VIII and the Pope regarding his marriage to Anne Boleyn. He belonged to a family of moderate but committed reformers. A patron of Jacques Lefèvre d’Étaples, he recommended him as tutor to Charles, the third son of Francis I. Anne Boleyn likely met him in 1531, if not earlier, and shared his evangelical beliefs. In 1535, she helped him secure the release from a French prison of the Neo-Latin poet Nicolas Bourbon, who had been imprisoned in 1533 for the first edition of his Nugae (Trifles), and bring him to England. Before his return to France in 1536, he benefited from the friendship of Holbein, whom he called "the Apelles of our time," and from the patronage of Anne, who hired him as a tutor to educate the young people of the English court, particularly those from reformist circles, including her nephew, Henry Carey.
Hans Holbein the Younger, Portrait of Anne Boleyn?
circa 1532–1536, Royal Collection
Inscribed: Anna Boleyn, Queen
Hans Holbein the Younger, Portrait of Anne Boleyn?
circa 1532–1535, British Museum
Inscribed: Anne Boleyn, decapitated in London, May 19, 1536
Ring of Queen Elizabeth I
When opened, it reveals portraits of Elizabeth and Anne Boleyn
according to Eric Ives and Susan Doran.
Mother and daughter ?
Chequers, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire
Ages in 1536 :
28 years old Georges de Selve : 1508 - April 12, 1541
32 years old Jean de Dinteville : 1504 - 1555 or 1557
35 years old Anne Boleyn : c. 1501 - May 19, 1536
39 years old Hans Holbein : c. 1497 - 1543
45 years old Henry VIII : June 28, 1491 - January 28, 1547
When Dinteville was sent to England shortly before February 15, 1533, while his brother François, Bishop of Auxerre, was in Rome as the French ambassador, hopes for an alliance between France and England could not have been higher. Since Francis I was to be the godfather of the unborn child, he remained in London until Elizabeth's birth and left the English court on November 18, 1533.
A private visit would have been unusual, and Eric Ives offers a more convincing explanation : Dinteville's diplomatic instructions were now outdated, as Anne Boleyn was about to be officially recognized as queen, and Georges de Selve had come to deliver new, confidential instructions to Dinteville, "and perhaps a private message to Anne," he adds.
According to Eric Ives, the painting The Ambassadors contains clear references to Anne's coronation. All the celestial instruments arranged on the two shelves in the background, whether directly, like the cylindrical and polyhedral dials, or indirectly through astronomical movements, indicate the date of April 11, 1533, Good Friday, at 9:30 and 10:30 a.m. That is, the exact day the royal court, and presumably Dinteville, was informed that Anne would be the next Queen of England.
The Cosmatesque pavement, built around 1268 in front of the high altar of Westminster Abbey, is not simply a decorative motif. It is an esoteric representation of the 13th-century universe. It contains designs depicting cosmological subjects in accordance with the natural sciences of the time. Intended for the Church's high scholastic community, its message is revealed by a complex inscription that seeks to understand humanity's place in space and time within the cosmos. Holbein was intimately familiar with it and reproduced it with precision.
Steven H. Wander, "The Westminster Abbey Sanctuary Pavement," Traditio, 34 (1978), 137-156.
https://londonpavementgeology.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Westminster-Abbey.pdf
https://ruthsiddall.co.uk/UrbanGeology.html
The painting's floor accurately depicts the Cosmatesque marble pavement created in 1268 by the Roman artist Odoricus (the only example of such work in England), located directly in front of the high altar in Westminster Abbey, "the exact spot where, on June 1, 1533, Anne Boleyn was anointed queen, the most solemn moment of the coronation ritual that was the distinctive spiritual mark of the English monarchy, a ritual which Dinteville witnessed at the king's special invitation. The choice of the Cosmatesque floor thus makes the painting a permanent reminder of the apogee of the ambassador's career," presumably depicted wearing the costume in which he appeared for the coronation.
The European political situation and the contemporary state of the Christian Church are evoked by several elements: an inverted globe showing Europe upside down, centered on the word "Policy"; a lute (*) with a broken string; a flute case with a missing instrument; and an arithmetic book open to the page on division. The imminent danger of disharmony and political fragmentation in Europe is thus underscored. But the painting also offers hope, Eric Ives points out, if only through the set square that prevents the arithmetic book from closing completely on this symbolic page, and through the compass, two tools essential to any sound construction. The instruments for measuring space and time symbolize trust in science, but also rational moderation and prudence, paramount virtues of the two humanist diplomats depicted in the painting.
(* In reference to Andrea Alciato's Emblematum liber, published in Augsburg in 1531. In the emblem Foedora, "the alliances," a lute simply placed on the floorboards symbolizes concord among citizens.)
The religious leanings of these two figures and of the painter, a reformist in spirit, may explain the presence of the open book on the right of the lower shelf, which displays the translation of the first verse of Johann Walther's hymn Veni Sancte Spiritus (Come, Holy Spirit), translated into German by Martin Luther, and the book on the right, the introduction to the abridged version of the Ten Commandments.
All these objects were painted before the anamorphic projection, which, in my opinion, was not part of the initial project.
The painting's structure then becomes a two-part narrative.
Everything depicted (the instruments, the crucifix, the paving stones) constitutes a world, that of 1533, a world certainly torn apart by different faiths, but one that a humanist force seeks to reconcile. Rome, Nuremberg, Polisy, linked by knowledge, diplomacy, and the Reformed faith. A coherent, legible, and controlled world.
In the upper left corner of the painting, half-hidden behind a green drapery symbolizing hope, but also fidelity and original purity, a silver crucifix represents Christ's position, intermediary between this world and the next, but also evokes the idea of a hidden God whom only faith, and not human reason alone, can grasp, according to the ideas of Saint Paul as professed by Georges de Selve. After this painting, art historians no longer need to question whether Holbein was the first Protestant painter or not. According to Eric Ives, “the crucifix, the set square, the Lutheran vernacular, and texts familiar to all Christians express the evangelical conviction that the path to unity in the Church was a response to Christ through the Holy Spirit, leading to a life of daily obedience to the commandments.”
Hans Holbein was a humanist and an admirer of Erasmus, who was his patron and whose portrait he painted in 1523 (Kunstmuseum Basel) and in 1528 (Louvre). Hoping to become the official painter of Henry VIII, he left Antwerp and arrived in London in September 1532 at the invitation of Thomas More, Chancellor of the Realm. He was accused of treason, imprisoned in the Tower of London on April 17, 1534, and executed on July 6, 1535.
Only three cities are precisely indicated by points on the globe: Policy, Nurēberga et Roma.
Polisy, Nuremberg and Rome form a triangle linking France (home of Francis I's two ambassadors), the Holy Roman Empire (home of Martin Luther), and Italy (where the states of Pope Clement VII were located). This triangle is large enough to mentally contain the omnipresent and omniscient eye of the God common to both Christian factions. The Alps divide the triangle into two almost equal parts, separating Catholic Rome from the Polisy-Nuremberg duo, the birthplace of the Reformation. This chain of high peaks can signify the aerial dominion of the One who belongs to both halves and the difficulties to be overcome for the doctrinal and military confrontation to become peaceful coexistence in freedom of worship.
The presence of Nuremberg can be explained by the political and religious situation of those years. By the Peace of Nuremberg of July 23, 1532, Charles V granted the Protestants of the Holy Roman Empire, allied since 1530 in the Schmalkaldic League, freedom of conscience and worship until the convocation of a general council, in exchange for subsidies to expel Suleiman the Magnificent, whose troops were threatening Hungary. He thus prevented the kings of France and England from joining the league.
When, at the beginning of 1532, Charles V proposed peace to the Protestants, Luther advised the princes of the Schmalkaldic League to accept his proposal. Luther wrote in February 1532 to the Elector of Saxony, advising him to seek peace, as grave consequences could result from war for the Protestant side. […] The risk of war was averted for a time, and Luther devoted his energy to the question of the council, which, since the meeting between Charles V and Clement VII in Bologna during the winter of 1532/33, had been on the agenda.
(Hubert Guicharrousse, « Luther et la légitimité de la guerre : la Ligue de Smalkalde et le droit de résistance », De la guerre juste à la paix juste : Aspects confessionnels de la construction de la paix dans l’espace franco-allemand (xvie-xxe siècle), Presses universitaires du Septentrion, 2008, p. 35-48.)
Policy, or Polity in English, in the sense of “policy” or “good government,” refers to the policy of the sovereign or prince, where official religion and civil policy are closely intertwined in a single ideology, based on the principle of a theological foundation for the state. Upon her entry into London in 1501, Catherine of Aragon encountered, at the second pageant in Grace Church Street, a man named Politique (Policy), dressed as a knight in full armor.
Polisy, Nuremberg, Rome : three deliberately chosen cities.
These are not three neutral geographical points. They constitute a political and spiritual map of Europe from 1533 to 1536, a map intellectually traversed by Dinteville, de Selve, and Holbein. The triangle they form represents a symbolic as well as a geographical territory, evoking the very tension in which these men lived.
*
One could therefore attribute to each of these three cities one of the three circles depicted at the bottom of the painting, before the anamorphosis disrupted the mosaic's order. Echoing the political and religious situation of 1533, these three circles might represent three different expressions of the Christian faith. Is the circle on our left, in which Dinteville's right foot is firmly planted in the center, that of the French or Erasmian reformed religion ? Is the one on our right, whose edge Selve touches only with the tips of his crossed feet, the "official" Christian religion, headed by the Pope ? The middle one, smaller and set back from the other two, whose center seems to be located on the central axis, a place still vacant from any more radical, Anglican, Lutheran influence ?
I greatly appreciate Ariel Colonomos's analysis of The Ambassadors, "one of the most emblematic pictorial works in the trajectory of Western diplomacy." Yet, "the protagonists of this display of power nevertheless exhibit impersonal signs of recognition ; their identity as individuals is hidden beneath their impassivity."
He titles the section of his text devoted to the painting: The Enigmatic Gaze of the "Ambassadors." Regarding this "gaze," he writes:
"This demonstration of strength, power, and wealth is accompanied […] by an impassivity of gaze and an impenetrability of features. […] The impassive gaze of the protagonists in this court scene signifies their ability to control their emotions, the strength of their restraint—qualities indispensable to the art of governing and negotiating. […] Holbein's painting lays the groundwork for a crucial reflection on the nature of international politics." “The Ambassadors would suggest ‘the seriousness of the unrest between Catholics and Protestants.’
But death is ever-present. ‘While certain, death is that which presupposes no anticipation, the unpredictable.’”
Ariel Colonomos considers, without explicitly stating it, that the anamorphic skull, which does not depict Anne Boleyn, was planned from the very beginning of the painting’s conception. Its presence allows Holbein to introduce “a decisive reflection on violence and restraint in the affairs of state by indicating a profound tension between the cold calculation that must ward off death through power and the repressed certainty of finitude.”
Death, in effect, is the ultimate division that gives the painting its full meaning. “After seizing Anne Boleyn on May 19, 1536, at approximately 35 years old, death claimed Georges de Selve, at the age of 33, on April 12, 1541, then Hans Holbein during the plague epidemic in London between October 8 and November 29, 1543, at approximately 46 years old, and finally Jean de Dinteville, in 1555, at the age of 51, paralyzed for the last ten years of his life.
Ariel Colonomos, « La froideur du regard impassible des États » in « Le sens du regard », sous la direction de Claudine Haroche et Georges Vigarello Communications, 75, 2004, p. 75-90.
https://www.persee.fr/doc/comm_0588-8018_2004_num_75_1_2144
The Beheading of Qq: Anne Boleyn, Anonymous, 17th century
The beheading of Anne Boleyn (who played a significant role in England in disseminating reformist writings, especially those of Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples) compelled Holbein and Dinteville to express their shock and outrage.
It will be a skull.
It does not belong to this world; it pierces it, tears it apart, destroys it. It is not on the two levels of the central cabinet among the instruments. It is in front, below, in a different pictorial space. It is illegible from the front, unlike everything else in the painting, which is clearly visible.
Anamorphosis is a temporal rupture. There is now a before and an after, separated by the blade of a sword. To cut. Holbein paints the moment a world shifts, with Anne's head.
