Hans Holbein the Younger, 'The Ambassadors' (1533)
New Historicist critic Stephen Greenblatt has suggested that Utopia's ‘subtle displacements, distortions, and shifts of perspective are the close equivalent in Renaissance prose to the anamorphic virtuosity of Holbein’s art. Like “The Ambassadors”, Utopia presents two distinct worlds that occupy the same textual space while insisting upon the impossibility of their doing so. ' (Renaissance Self-Fashioning: From More to Shakespeare, 1980, p.22)
The skull in Holbein's painting requires the spectator to stand at a specific position to the painting. What positions/perspectives does More's text allow to the reader? If Utopia was a Holbein painting, what image do you think would take the place of the skull?
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