A change of viewing angleSourced
The strange shape below the portraits becomes a skull
Holbein’s 1533 painting The Ambassadors includes a stretched shape below its two figures. An anamorphic distortion makes a skull recognisable from an oblique angle.
Facing a painting straight on does not always reveal everything.
Summary / translation: Unbubly · CC BY-SA 4.0
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The Ambassadors (Holbein) · Wikimedia contributors
Adapted, summarized and translated from the source. Adapted text is also available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Reviewed: 2026-10-09