Teasers,puzzles and amazing pics: February 2013

Can you find the hidden images of Crucified Christ and distorted skull in this painting??

This painting titled "The Ambassadors" is a very famous painting by Hans Holbein(1533) with a lot of signs,symbols and meaning and is the cause of much debate.

Sometimes, an artist deliberately hides images within a work of art.There are so many hidden images.Most important are the crucified Christ and distorted skull.Can you find them in this painting?

Read on to understand the full meaning of this painting and clues to the hidden images...
In many of Holbein's portraits there is much more to them than initially meets the eye. This painting was commissioned by Jean de Dinteville, who we see standing on the left. He was sent to England by King Francis I of France as an ambassador to protect the interests of his country. The man on the right is also French; he is Bishop Georges de Selve, who was in England on a secret mission in the spring of 1533, a time when the English were on the brink of formally leaving the Catholic Church. Holbein, meanwhile, had left Basel, and was working in London.

This strange smear is actually a disembodied skull that has been highly distorted by extreme foreshortening (anamorphosis). Only if viewed from a sharp angle does its true appearance become apparent.

The skull is the ultimate memento mori. All things on earth are transient, including the people and objects in this painting. When we position ourselves so that we can see the skull as a skull, the other, supposedly realistic objects are in turn distorted. The moral is that death is everywhere, but we do not recognize it. When we do finally make out its shape, life in turn becomes twisted and blurred.

The piece of furniture behind the men is known in England as a "whatnot", on which scientific instruments are laid out. These mark the pair out as being men of learning, of the kind who were at that time shaking the foundations of old beliefs. This was the age of Copernicus, the first astronomer who develop a theory which placed the sun in the center of the universe, instead of the earth. Amongst the objects displayed are a celestial globe, a Polyhedral sundial, a cylinder sundial, a Quadrant, and a Torquetum (a medieval astronomical instrument) along with Peter Apian's arithmetic book.

The lute is a symbol of harmony, but on this instrument a string has broken. This may refer to the increasing discord between Catholics and Protestants at that time. The hymnbook is open to texts that do not upset either party and may represent Holbein's plea for a unified Church.

The globe shows Europe in the most prominent position, and Africa below it. Even the place in France where Dinteville's castle stood can be made out.

Hidden away, where it is difficult to spot is the presence of the crucified Christ. It is behind the curtains in the upper left hand corner. This raises the portrait to a higher level, as does the skull: despite their status and intellectual activities these men remain sinful and mortal human beings, and answerable to God.

There are many other messages in the painting - the floor mosaic on which the skull lies, is based on a design in Westminster Abbey, the Cosmati pavement, which is situated before the High Altar, and the carpet on the upper shelf is notably oriental. Such carpets were often integrated into Christian imagery as symbols of luxury and status.
The painting has caused much controversy over the years. One Science Historian, Professor John North, analysed the scientific and mathematical elements shown in the painting. He calculated the time given in the portrait as 4 pm on Good Friday, 11th April 1533, 1500 years exactly after the Crucifixion, with the key to the painting to be found in the small crucifix.