Franny Moyle speculates that Elizabeth's mother, Anne Boleyn, then Queen of England, might have commissioned it as a gift for Jean de Dinteville, the French ambassador, portrayed on the left.

A second shelf of objects shows a lute with a broken string, a symbol of discord, next to a hymnal composed by Martin Luther.

Though he was a German-born artist who spent much of his time in England, Holbein here displays the influence of Early Netherlandish painting.

Among the clues to the figures' associations are a selection of scientific instruments including two globes (one terrestrial and one celestial), a shepherd's dial, a quadrant, a torquetum, and a polyhedral sundial,[3] as well as various textiles.

Biographer Eric Ives suggests that Holbein included the pattern from this distinctive area of floor as a reference to the forthcoming coronation of Anne Boleyn, as it was at the location in the Abbey reserved for the ceremony.

The commonly accepted symbol of discord, a lute with a broken string, is included next to a hymnbook in Martin Luther's translation, suggesting strife between scholars and the clergy.

[6] The terrestrial globe on the lower shelf repeats a portion of a cartographically imaginative map created in possibly 1530 and of unknown origin.

"[9] The most notable and famous of Holbein's symbols in the work is the distorted skull which is placed in the bottom centre of the composition.

A simple explanation is that "memento mori" was de Dinteville's motto,[10] while another possibility is that this painting represents three levels: the heavens as portrayed by the astrolabe and other objects on the upper shelf, the living world as evidenced by books and a musical instrument on the lower shelf, and death signified by the skull.

Holbein may have intended the skulls (one as a gray slash and the other as a medallion on Jean de Dinteville's hat) and the crucifix in the upper left corner to encourage contemplation of one's impending death and the resurrection.

However, a viewing place that would provide the correct elevation, such as a suitable staircase for instance, has not been identified at Dinteville's chateau at Polisy; it seems unlikely that one would have existed.

It is also possible that it could be coincidence, as other images designed to work side-on are also rendered reasonably well by the kind of lens proposed by Samuel.

[22] While the skull after the 1996 restoration should still be visible and interpretable to the eye by either side viewing or through a lens, Sharp believes vital evidence regarding the way the projection was created may have been lost.

[24] However, the methods by which the new skull projection was produced were not published, and were missing from the official National Gallery technical document describing the restoration.

[25][26] It is possible they used computer projections, which were at the time frequently bad at handling perspective, and used a modern skull, with teeth which would have moved the overall dimensions of the jaw line.

In 1890, Sidney Colvin was the first to propose the figure on the left as Jean de Dinteville, Seigneur of Polisy (1504–1555), French ambassador to the court of Henry VIII for most of 1533.

[29] Hervey identified the man on the right as Georges de Selve (1508/09–1541), Bishop of Lavaur, after tracing the painting's history back to a seventeenth-century manuscript.

[33] Giles Hudson, for example, has argued that the man on the right is not de Selve, but Jean's brother François, Bishop of Auxerre, a noted patron of the arts with a known interest in mathematical instruments.

[34] The identification finds support in the earliest manuscript in which the painting is mentioned, a 1589 inventory of the Chateau of Polisy, discovered by Riccardo Famiglietti.

[35] He points to a letter François de Dinteville wrote to Jean on 28 March 1533, in which he talks of an imminent meeting with the Pope and makes no mention of visiting London.

[43] Scholars have often argued that the celestial globe is placed to indicate a particular time and date, which may help understand some of the hidden meanings in the painting.

[47] It is worth noting however, that the sitters are indoors, and the instruments would not work without direct sunlight, a point which has not been addressed by those speculating on the underlying meanings.

[48] Eric Ives argues that the date is set to 11 May 1533—the day Anne Boleyn was formally accorded the status of "royal" at the court of Henry VIII.

[51] The horary quadrant was identified by Peter Drinkwater in 1993 as being a straight lined horarium bilimbatum, presented in a disassembled state.

In any case, the panels show a partially fictitious display, as the values around the dials should not be evenly spaced, but should be more closely grouped together as they reach the narrow end of the device.

It appears it was used in the period 1450-1500s to locate Halley's Comet, for example, and information about its use began to circulate more widely in the early 1500s in Germany and the Netherlands.

[60] These objects, on the lower shelf, are taken together as conveying discord, related to the changes in the Christian church being brought forward through Lutheranism, of which the sitters disapproved.

Behind the lute is a pair of compasses, which can stand for good governance, or alternatively, are associated with Saturn, who is a malignant and chaotic force.

Standing in front of the lute is a Lutheran hymnal, turned to readable pages for the hymn Veni Sancte Spiritus and the Ten Commandments, both translated into German.

The painting was sold out of the family in 1787 in Paris, at an auction of Nicholas Beaujon's property following his death, as an additional item owned by his executor, Chretien-Francois II de Lamoignon.