Weirder than those crop circles

Magnet #140 - Holbein the Younger's The Ambassadors

Heyyyyy!

So remember how I was all complainy because someone at the National Gallery in London had made the decision to crop Holbein's Ambassadors around the inanimate objects, rather than actual ambassadors?

Dudes. While I was visiting my art gallery, I realized that I had yet another piece of that painting. Well, of course, it wouldn't be either of the Ambassadors. Quite clearly, the more interesting article would be the maraca...no, I mean, the terrestrial globe.

Odd.

A cut above...and beyond

Magnet #124 - Holbein the Younger's The Ambassadors

But, where are they? Talk about cropping out the important stuff!

I can't believe this magnet from the National Gallery in London. It's of Holbein the Younger's Ambassadors, and it makes me giggle, from the second that I saw it.

First, this is the full image. Jeepers!

Second, they not only cropped out the guys, but they took out the cool anamorphic part of it.

And, third, here we go again with the reading into art, again. Supposedly, the broken lute string is discord, and the Lutheran hymn book is a plea for harmony. And, you don't get to see the sundials or the globes, to represent man's ability to measure time or chart the heavens.

But c'mon, someone at the museum had to make this cropping decision. I mean, how you gonna crop out the anamorphic skull - the very thing that makes the gallery visitors walk up to this very painting and actually look at it!