The Hever portrait of Anne Boleyn depicts the mother of Elizabeth I and is believed to have been painted during the latter\u2019s reign.<\/span> Photograph: Hever Castle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nA discarded triangular form beneath Anne\u2019s right arm is thought to record the precise moment that the artist departed from an inherited design, deciding instead to show Anne holding a red rose, with her hands and fingers clearly visible.<\/p>\n
In the 16th century, artists used \u201cpatterns\u201d drawn from life in brief sittings, so that they could reproduce royal portraits consistently. These were circulated between workshops as approved likenesses.<\/p>\n
The Hever \u201cRose\u201d underdrawing shows that the artist initially used the so-called \u201cB\u201d pattern, which generally focused on Anne\u2019s head and shoulders, before adapting it \u201cto debunk the slander of the day\u201d as a lie.<\/p>\n
Dr Owen Emmerson, an assistant curator at Hever, said: \u201cBy clearly displaying five digits on each hand, the portrait acts as a visual rebuttal to hostile rumours and as a defence of Anne Boleyn \u2013 and, by extension, of her daughter Elizabeth\u2019s legitimacy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anne was imprisoned for adultery in the Tower of London in 1536. Although she denied the charges, she was found guilty of treason and beheaded. Her only crime had been her failure to give Henry VIII a son.<\/p>\n
The king had divorced the first of his six wives, Catherine of Aragon, to marry Anne \u2013 a marriage that led him to break with the Catholic church and brought about the English Reformation. Henry VIII removed all traces of Anne from the royal palaces and no portrait painted during her lifetime is thought to have survived.<\/p>\n
The Hever team conclude from the latest analysis that their portrait is the earliest scientifically dated panel portrait of Anne currently known, created when her image was being consciously re-examined during Elizabeth I\u2019s reign, at a time of intense political and religious anxiety.<\/p>\nThe portrait undergoes scientific analysis at Hever Castle, Anne Boleyn\u2019s childhood home.<\/span> Photograph: Hever Castle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nIn her 2025 book, The Many Faces of Anne Boleyn, Helene Harrison suggested that Anne\u2019s hands were prominently displayed in the Hever Rose portrait to counter claims by Nicholas Sanders, a 16th-century writer and activist, who campaigned for the restoration of Roman Catholicism in England. He sought to undermine Elizabeth I\u2019s legitimacy, writing that Anne had \u201con her right hand six fingers\u201d. On being told of the new evidence, Harrison said it was amazing to find that the analysis supported her theory.<\/p>\n
Kate McCaffrey, who is also an assistant curator at Hever, said: \u201cIt\u2019s really thrilling. This is very strong evidence of a visual rebuttal of a very specific myth of witchcraft and six fingers, which is really quite extraordinary. The scientific analysis extends this to a very specific political moment in time.<\/p>\n\u201cIt\u2019s Elizabeth\u2019s way of not only reclaiming her own legitimacy and lineage, but also restoring the legitimacy of her mother. It\u2019s impossible to say that Elizabeth herself commissioned this portrait, but it certainly seems too much of a coincidence for it not to be in response to rumours that were circulating at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n
The dendrochronology was undertaken by Ian Tyers, an independent specialist, while infrared reflectography and material analysis were conducted at the Hamilton Kerr Institute, University of Cambridge.<\/p>\n
The portrait will feature in a forthcoming exhibition at Hever, titled Capturing a Queen: The Image of Anne Boleyn. It will explore how Anne\u2019s image was \u201ccreated, deliberately altered and politically deployed\u201d.<\/p>\n
For her contemporaries, beauty was in the eye of the beholder. While the Venetian ambassador Francesco Sanuto described her as \u201cnot one of the handsomest women in the world\u201d, the German humanist Simon Grynaeus thought she was \u201cgood-looking\u201d.<\/p>\n
McCaffrey said: \u201cHer appeal lay in her intelligence, confidence and charisma. That is what caught Henry\u2019s eye and heart.\u201d<\/p>\n
Capturing a Queen: The Image of Anne Boleyn opens on <\/em>11 February, running until <\/em>2 January 2027.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n#Hidden #detail #Anne #Boleyn #portrait #witchcraft #rebuttal #historians #Monarchy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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