Note 17 — Chapter I · The History of the “Ambassadors” from 1533 to 1654

The catalogue of the National Gallery (1898) gives the dimensions as follows: “In oil, of ten vertical panels, 6 ft. 10 in. high, by 6 ft. 10¼ in. wide.” It is curious that while the catalogue of the Beaujon sale makes the picture much wider than high, Le Brun’s description, about five years later in date, exactly reverses those proportions. Le Brun’s measurements are obviously the less incorrect of the two, as the engraving in the “Galerie des Peintres Flamands,” etc., shows that the picture, if represented in proportions that at all corresponded with the original, was, in his time, much higher than broad; but both descriptions must have been very inaccurate. Excessive carelessness on the part of the French writers is probably the main explanation of the discrepancies.