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John David North

The Ambassador's Secret: Holbein and the World of the Renaissance Hardcover – April 1, 2002

by John North (Author)

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The Ambassadors Secret is a radical reinterpretation of one of the worlds most famous paintings. Holbeins celebrated portrait of two French diplomats at the court of Henry VIII has usually been linked to the political and religious unrest of the day. John North shows that the painting has a very different, and previously undetected, central theme and many other meanings. Far from being random, the objects in The Ambassadors are deliberately, and very accurately, placed. In revealing exactly what they, and the painting, mean, The Ambassadors Secret opens a remarkable window on the world of the Renaissance.

Print length

320 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Hambledon Pr
Publication date

April 1, 2002
Dimensions

6.25 x 1.25 x 9.25 inches
ISBN-10

1852853301
ISBN-13

978-1852853303
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

John North is Emeritus Professor of History of Philosophy and Exact Sciences, University of Groningen, The Netherlands.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Hambledon Pr; Revised edition (April 1, 2002)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 320 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1852853301
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1852853303
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.57 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.25 x 1.25 x 9.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #3,069,984 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #15,234 in Arts & Photography Criticism

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Julian Martin

Understand the difference between looking and seeing

Reviewed in the United States on June 14, 2002

Art, history, religion, alchemy - these and more are the tantalizing ingredients with which John David North creates a singular work. "The Ambassadors' Secret" is a look at Hans Holbein's painting of Jean de Dinteville and Georges de Selve, two important 27-year-old Frenchmen who were in London in 1533. Even on the surface of things, this portrait is an unusual work: the two Ambassadors stand at either side of a curious collection of bric-a-brac that seems to be the real focus of the painting. North shows us how these items can be interpreted to determine a number of things, such as the date on which the two men are depicted (April 11th, 1533 - Good Friday). He discusses the nature and significance of the rhomboid shape at the men's feet, a geometrically perfect distortion of a human skull. Was the artist merely showing off by throwing in such a diabolically complex element, or was the skull meant to be a comment on the fleeting nature of life compared to the higher forces (time, the elements, religion) alluded to by the knickknacks on the shelves? Why is one string on the lute broken? Why does the painting suggest so many multiples of 3, even the men's ages, 3 x 3 x 3? Possible answers to these and many other questions are addressed by North, and once you've read this book, you will delight in looking at the painting again and seeing all the things you overlooked whenever you first encountered it.
Whether you approach this book for serious inquiry into an obviously intentional riddle, or just for entertaining scholarly conjecture about the intent of one of history's great painters, you are sure to enjoy it.

16 people found this helpful

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Irene Rheinwald

Dissecting a masterpiece

Reviewed in the United States on June 29, 2006

Previous interpretations of this enigmatic painting, far more than a mere dual portrait of Jean de Dinteville and Georges de Selve, focussed upon symbols of Catholic, melancholy momento mori. Reminders of death abound: the skull (anamorphic representations were common - note the NPG portrait of Edward VI), the broken lute string, a world turned upside down (alluding to the Reformation), references to a universe divided, and a crucifix to remind man of Jesus' sacrifice, death and redemption.

North offers a radical, thorough interpretation of the religious and secular objects, astronomical devices, geometrical patterns of the floor, and, of course, the floating diagonal skull, relating them all to April 11, 1533, at 4:00 pm, Good Friday. He shies away from the political/religious schism of the day, stating it cannot be proved nor disproved.

Far more sophisticated than Dan Brown's silly, simplistic "Da Vinci Code" (the bane of art historians, legitimate as seeing faces in cloud formations), North proposes the geometrical lines of the piece, once extended and analyzed, are repeatedly at 27 degrees; significant, as 27 is divisible by three, the number of the Holy Trinity. Jesus was supposedly crucified at age 33, precisely 1,500 years before this painting. One could conclude Holbein's work contains subtle references to the Crucifixion and Golgotha, often represented as a mount of skulls (the present day site of the supposed tomb in Jerusalem contains an enormous, naturally formed skull in the rockface). A spiritual reminder to remain moral during troubled times, but perhaps not the previously assumed political statement. It is intriguing to note that Holbein, the German born court painter of Henry VIII, was a friend of astronomer and mathematician Nicolaus Kratzer.

The arguments are brilliantly realized, although not easily followed unless one has extensive knowledge of the period.

Why this painting? Why did Holbein paint this in 1533? Fifteen hundred years after the Crucifixion, the End of Days, the Apocalypse, seemed imminent. Charles V sacked Rome in 1527, Luther's Protestant heresy threatened Catholicism, Renaissance humanism clashed with medieval piety, a pregnant Anne Boleyn (Holbein's patroness) would be crowned Queen of England in less than two months' time - the stability, security of the old order had disappeared in the blink of an eye.

This book, over 400 dense pages long and extensively annotated, is one of the finest examples of art historical research I have ever encountered - innovative, securely grounded in history, religious speculation, art, and mathematics. A perfect reflection, indeed, of the era.

11 people found this helpful

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Steven Beishuizen

Gives a Well-Known Work New Meaning Five Centuries Later

Reviewed in the United States on April 2, 2007

Author John North likens the title of the well-known National Gallery painting, "The Ambassadors" to calling a scene of the Christmas nativity, "Joseph and Mary". Indeed Holbein the Younger's 1533 painting of two French ambassadors at the English court of Henry VIII inspires thinking of symbolism immediately due to the array of scientific instruments depicted between the two subjects and the distorted scull placed below them. North exhaustively examines each item in the scene and ties each to themes dominating the politics of the day such as the growing friction between Henry VIII and Rome and the overall fascination of royal courts with science, alchemy, astrology, and astronomy. Several lines through the work are examined for their thematic relevance of the objects they connect and bisect, and other elements such as horoscopes are overlaid on the work for analysis. Included in the analysis is the setting of the exact time of the "sitting" to 4pm on Good Friday. It is clear that North came upon this subject from his past work investigating similar devices employed in the written works of Chaucer, and he presents a convincing argument here as well though his work is heavy of background information that tends to distract from the thesis rather than to support it in many ways. An interesting read, and true "fans" will be interested to know that Good Friday 2008 will mark the 25th 19-year Easter cycle since 1533. Is that some sort of silver jubilee?

6 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

maureen n

Art and its symbolism

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 24, 2018

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A great book - we’ll worth reading.
Only one drawback - the core of the discussion is a painting by Holbein, and it would have helped greatly to have had a pull-out reproduction of the painting to look at, while reading. Unfortunately, the ‘painting’ is on a centre-ish page, with a significant detail the edge obscured by the spine of the book. Nonetheless, copies of the painting are easily available on-line

Juanita

Double portrait symbolism

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 12, 2013

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this is a brilliant - albeit sometimes a bit difficult to follow - analysis of THE AMBASSADORS - dual portrait of the two French ambassadors to Henry VIII's court. This covers the intricacy and complicated symbolism hidden within the painting, including a detailed explanation of how the the anamorphis skull could have been designed. The mathematical diagrams for finding the correct viewing position are very enlightening for a lay art hobbyist - and do work. It would help if the illustration of the portrait actually allowed easier sighting of the crucifix in the top right - the binding occludes this important feature somewhat. Also when looking at fig.29 - the skull seen from the position explained is best revolved and viewed from the left - the skull, jawbone and facial features are very obvious indeed. GOOD LUCK TO DETERMINED READERS - you will learn a lot of politics, religion, reform, art, literature, science (cosmology/astrology/astromomy) as well as art - worth making the effort.

3 people found this helpful

N. DAVIES

Excellent

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 10, 2009

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Holbein's Ambassadors has always been an intriguing painting and here North applies his profound intellect to analyse and reveal the meaning and profound intelligence that lies within. Ostensibly a painting of two men on either side of a two-tier table of random artefacts, every single feature of the painting is revealed to have deep and inter-dependent meaning. Not revealing "almost to the day", but precisely to the day and time that the painting comprehensively documents.

It is remarkable that it has taken almost 500 years to uncover the depth of meaning in this painting, rather like the works of Shakespeare continuing to reveal its further depths.

The only weakness in the book is the author tending towards supposition in its latter part, having previously established the facts, with liberal use of should/would/could/likely. But this does not detract from this book being the most important analysis of this painting that there has ever been.

On future visits to the National Gallery I will look at this painting from an entirely different perspective than the curious and less well informed one that I had before.

13 people found this helpful

edtoulouse

A key to the Renaissance

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 23, 2019

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John North has dissected Holbein's masterpiece to the nth degree. A dense, erudite yet readable window into Renaissance history, politics, art and science. Outstanding.

Amazon Customer

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 25, 2016

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