The Ambassadors

Painting · 1533 · London · Europe

An anamorphic skull legible only from the side: painting's most famous optical puzzle

Author: Hans Holbein the Younger
Style: Northern Renaissance — Oil paint and a magnifying eye: the world as an endless sum of exact, symbol-laden things
Century: 16th century

Made around the same time (±30 years)

1555–1561 Saint Basil's Cathedral — Barma and Postnik · Tented Churches · Moscow, Red Square
1508–1512 Sistine Chapel ceiling — Michelangelo · Italian Renaissance · Vatican, Rome
c. 1503–1519 Mona Lisa — Leonardo da Vinci · Italian Renaissance · Florence
1534–1540 Madonna with the Long Neck — Parmigianino · Mannerism · Parma
1530–1532 Church of the Ascension, Kolomenskoye · Tented Churches · Kolomenskoye, Moscow
c. 1526–1530 Baburnama — Babur · Agra
c. 1524–1540 Shahnameh of Shah Tahmasp · Persian miniature · Tabriz
c. 1524–1534 Palazzo del Te — Giulio Romano · Mannerism · Mantua