Exploration with Religion

The Ambassadors by Hans Holbein the Younger was painted in 1533 and depicts two figures to the right and to the left of a two tiered shelf with still life objects rendered on top of both shelves. A distorted form sits on the floor, which is represented as a geometric inclined carpet, and all these elements are cast against a green curtain inscribed with floral patterns.

The content of the image itself presents a relationship between two varying institutions – one of exploration and travel and the other of religion. Where the figure on the left is clothed in seemingly secular but exotic clothes, the figure on the right wears a religious robe garment with a white collar. The figure on the left perhaps representative of exploration wears a seemingly heavy fur coat with a fine shirt underneath and displays a gold medallion necklace. The right figure stands in contrast to the other figure with a more muted garment with a floor length robe. The shelf flanked by the two figures is also telling and indicative of the environment where objects used for exploration can be seen lining both top and bottom shelf. The top shelf contains several navigational objects including a globe and an astrolabe, while the lower shelf contains several scrolls, an open book, and a musical string instrument along with another globe.

The object on the ground appears to be some sort of stretched bone that lies in a diagonal fashion across the painting, but on closer inspection, the form can be seen as a skull emerging at the right angle and distance from the painting. With all these elements in mind, Holbein may be trying to convey the bridging between exploratory practices and religious institutions. The figures stand comfortably to each side of a shelf that carries both traveling instruments and religious icons, and the body language of the figures conveys that both are at ease and are not in a hostile state of mind. The skull remains on the ground as perhaps a reminder of death where these figures are possibly contributing to the tolerance of exploration and religion as a more unified entity, death is inevitable to all factions of groups of people.