The ambassadors

Holbein, Hans, the younger (1497/1498-1543)


Item type:
painting
Date of creation:
1533
Height:
207.0 cm  (81 1/2 in.)
Width:
209.5 cm  (82 1/2 in.)
Technique / Medium:
oil on oak

Additional titles

Jean de Dinteville and Georges de Selve

    Item location

  • National Gallery (London)
    [Museum inv. no.: NG1314]

People as subjects

Dinteville, Jean de (1504-1555) (Non-musician/dancer)
Selve, George de (1508-1541) (Non-musician/dancer)

Instruments [MIMO Code] (notes)

Lute [3394] (six-course lute with one broken string)
Transverse flute [4093] (case holding four flutes (partially visible))

Musical works

Walter, Johann -- Veni sancte spirituslegible music notation
musical setting by Walter [Walther]; German translation of text by Martin Luther

Luther, Martin -- Mensch wiltu leben seliglich [Mensch willt du leben seliglich]legible music notation

RIdIM images


Photo © The National Gallery, London

Image URLs

image link 1
National Gallery
image link 2
Google Arts & Culture

Bibliographic references

Rasmussen, Mary. "The case of the flutes in Holbein's 'The ambassadors'", Early music 23/1 (Feb. 1995) 114-123. RILM 1995-00313.

Barber, Stephen and Sandi Harris. "The lute in Holbein’s 'The ambassadors'", The Lute Society of America quarterly 35/4 (Nov. 2000) 5-6. RILM 2000-56076.

Phillips, Tom. Music in art through the ages (Munich: Prestel, 1997) 46-47. RILM 1997-11597.

McCarthy, Kerry. Tallis (New York: Oxford University Press, 2020) fig. 0.1. ISBN 9780190635213.

RIdIM record id

3178