The Ambassadors' Secret: Holbein and the World of the Renaissance - Hardcover

"Historical detective work at its best. John North has solved the hidden code within "The Ambassadors.""--Nicholas Campion

This study provides a radical reinterpretation of Holbein's famous painting. The 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, this book opens a window on the world of the Renaissance.