Painting of the Month

'The Ambassadors': Celestial Globe

This celestial globe, supported on a brass base with rams' heads, was used to identify the constellations. The stars are shown with the mythological beings after which they were named, such as Pegasus, the winged horse. Holbein conveys the varying brightness of the stars by using circles and starry symbols.

The globe had to be turned to the correct latitude to show the positions of the stars accurately. Here it is set, not to London's latitude, but to that of Rome. The hour circle round the north pole shows the time is 2.40pm and the constellations reflect the skies of 12 July. We do not know if the setting is significant.

Holbein may have used a drawing of a globe showing this setting, but Jean de Dinteville could have owned this expensive object. It is very like a globe dated 1533 designed by the German astronomer Johannes Schöner.


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