Do you know what anamorphosis is? Well, I didn´t know until Emilio showed us that painting by Hans Holbein “The ambassadors”, do you remember it?

In this picture, there is a clear example of this technic where the artist fits an anamorphic object in a scene painted with a normal perspective. This object is seen as a spot when you look at it from the front. Nevertheless, the painting was conceived to be exposed at a side of the stairs. Therefore, when the spectator went up the stairs, the picture was seen obliquely and the spot became a skull, a traditional symbol of the passing time and the ephemeral life.

As you can see this technic, it is not new since the above picture dates from 1533.

This oil painting is shown at the National Gallery in London, but if you cannot to visit London at the moment (by the way it must be really busy these days) I can offer you another alternative. This morning my nephew and me made an attempt of painting in an anamorphic way this morning, and taking into account that we had no the appropriate materials neither the right colours and also considering  that it is our first work it can be said that  it resulted in a  quite acceptable picture. It is called “The crack”. If we continue with this hobby, I will let you know.