Historical figures live in the moment at UK exhibition

Time can be such a curious, slippery thing. John Godsalve worked at the court of Henry VIII. A prot��g�� of the king's chief minister, Thomas Cromwell, he enjoyed a successful career, culminating with a knighthood at Edward VI's coronation in 1547. He also had the good fortune to sit for a likeness by Hans Holbein the Younger.

Here it is, at the start of The Encounter, a new exhibition of 48 Renaissance and Baroque Old Master drawings at the National Portrait Gallery. And, my goodness, it is astounding.

Wearing a fur-lined gown and a high-status black bonnet, Godsalve stares straight at us. It seems as if his eyes have swivelled in our direction only a split-second earlier. At a stroke, once we have connected with Godsalve's gaze, the nearly 500 years since Holbein made this drawing dissolve into nothing. Poof! The gulf of half a millennium is gone.