Symbolizing mortality, what appears to be a distorted skull protrudes into the foreground.  
On a lower shelf is a book of arithmetic, two Lutheran hymn books, and a lute with a broken string which some believe signifies religious strife in the painter's homeland. Symbolizing mortality, what appears to be a distorted skull protrudes into the foreground.  Leaning on the upper shelf, next to some cartographical instruments and maps are George de Selve, Bishop of Lavaur and Jean de Dinteville two French men who are, FTP, what envoys to the Pope and England respectively, the title of a work by Hans Holbein the Younger?
On a lower shelf is a book of arithmetic, two Lutheran hymn books, and a lute with a broken string which some believe signifies religious strife in the painter's homeland.
The Ambassadors (accept before the appropriate clue, Jean de Dinteville and Georges de Selve, The Ambassadors)