Holbein's Potratis of Tudor PRinces

(these are ambassadors rather than Tudor princes)

Yes, anthony, I agree that Holbein's portraiture has a pleasing gravitas -- not unlike the recent calendar photography of one Donut Bitch.

it's true

I think he was one of the great portraitists, though I'm sort of unconvinced that he was such a great painter. I'm not sure how I reconcile those two statements.

i was about to start a thread on this very painting.

http://umlautampersand.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/ambassadors.jpg

best painting

my friend is obsessed with this paintng

Oh yeah, the magic skull painting. Always a favourite for everyone on school trips to The National Gallery.

love holbein but skull is a bit obvious, he should have tried to integrate it somehow into the texture of the paiting so it would be even more wtf when ppl noticed it from the stairs

pretty shocking for the time i imagine.

i like the fact that it is so strange and floating.

1533!

do we have a thread for talking about or just looking at interesting and strange paintings from ye olde days?

love holbein but skull is a bit obvious, he should have tried to integrate it somehow into the texture of the paiting so it would be even more wtf when ppl noticed it from the stairs

― rouxymuzak (nakhchivan), Tuesday, November 30, 2010 2:35 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark

idk why this is making me lol, like pre-reformation art critics going "rmde, really, you're not even going to hide the skull? god."

integrated visual field yall

skulls also totes obvious, i mean had he seen any alternat(w)een culture, like, ever?

do we have a thread for talking about or just looking at interesting and strange paintings from ye olde days?

― jed_, Tuesday, November 30, 2010 2:41 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

I would be a full supporter of such a thread.

Get some of that fucked-up perspective medieval stuff involved.

done already!

what's the dutch (i think) painting i'm thinking of with the man and woman standing on either side of a circular covex mirror? possibly holding hands? i'm sure the background is similar to the holbein.

the arnolfini marriage

xpost, thanks roxy but that's not quite the thread i was thinking of. i meant one where we could discuss all kinds of old paintings just because they were strange or simply beautiful or whatever and that one is more restricted but i'm sure it will be interesting! xxx

that's the one - fantastic, thanks.

Get some of that fucked-up perspective medieval stuff involved.

― A brownish area with points (chap), Tuesday, November 30, 2010 2:44 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark

ahhh, maybe it's YOUR post-renaissance perspective that's fucked up, ahhh

oh you're not roxymuzak. sorry.

;_;

nakh, what's the painting i'm thinking of a lab scene with a man and some other people behind him looking on at his experiment which has some kind of light in a glass vessel or maybe even a bird in a bell jar or something. it's very dark and the light is caravaggio-esque but obv. much later than caravaggio?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Experiment_on_a_Bird_in_the_Air_Pump ?

thanks!

srsly, i was only trying to think of that the other day

Oooh I have this game for my smarty smart phone that's a "Spot the Differences" variation using old paintings, and The Garden of Earthly Delights is one of the scenes you might get to pore over. Also includes the Bosch Ship of Fools, some Bruegel, Durer, AND The Arnolfini Wedding! How exciting for me that I know what you're talking about!!

The Ambassadors (1553) is kinda gimmicky, kinda clip-arty?

That slanty skull is really weird.

Love how the most highbrow thread title in new answers is also one of the most typo-ridden.