The Ambassadors (Holbein) the lower shelf repeats a portion of a cartographically imaginative map created in possibly 1530 and of unknown origin. The map is referred to as the Ambassadors' Globe due to its popularly known appearance in the painting. The work has been described as "one of the most staggeringly impressive portraits in Renaissance art." The most notable and famous of Holbein's symbols in the work, however, is the distorted skull which is placed in the bottom center of the composition. The skull, rendered in anamorphic perspective, another invention of the Early Renaissance, is meant to be a visual puzzle as the
Ambassadors of the United States President of the United States (indicated in boldface below). Some notable ambassadors have included: Eight United States Ambassadors have been killed in office – six of them by armed attack and the other two in plane crashes. Ambassadors of the United States The diplomats serving as ambassadors of the United States of America to individual nations of the world, to international organizations, and ambassadors-at-large change regularly for various reasons, such as reassignment or retirement. The United States Department of State provides lists of ambassadors appointed to serve overseas which are updated periodically. (A recent list {pdf} was issued on December