Choose ALL the correct answers for each question - there may be more than one! You have 3 minutes to study the reading passage.
The objects in the painting are highly symbolic. Although there is no single reading or interpretation of their meanings, the rich fabrics and furs worn by the two men together with the display of their possessions suggest wealth, power and learning.
The instruments on the top shelf relate to astronomy and time-keeping, symbolising heaven, spirituality, religion, mortality. The globe is celestial too.
The instruments on the lower shelf are mathematical and musical, including a terrestrial globe, and symbolise earthly pleasures. Some are instruments for mapping and measuring, representing the contemporary exploration of the New World (the Renaissance period saw the beginning of colonisation, the slave trade and the import of exotic goods).
On close inspection the lute has a broken string and may be a reference to strong religious divisions of the time.
The crucifix hidden behind the green curtain at the top left corner symbolises the hope of resurrection after death.
The most mysterious and important symbol in the picture is also hidden - this time by a deliberate distortion. The technique is called Anamorphosis. If you stand at a sharp angle close to the painting, the strange oblong shape floating in the foreground is seen to be a skull. The skull was a popular symbol of death or mortality, often called a 'momento mori', that is a reminder to people that life is short. Holbein may have painted the anamorphosis to conceal political meanings in his work. It is said that the distorted skull was not recognised until 1873, three hundred years after it was painted.