"But unlike those versions, the Hever image holds a key difference: Anne is depicted holding a red rose in her hands. The recent scientific probe, carried out in partnership with Hamilton Kerr Institute, found this to be a deliberate reworking. Using infrared reflectography, researchers located a triangular form under Anne's right arm, which they believe record the moment the artist chose to render the queen's hands, right down to her last finger."
"And why? At the time the portrait was created, Anne was the target of a smear campaign spearheaded by Catholic priest Nicholas Sander. In a 1585 polemic, Sander, who was intent on deposing Elizabeth I, portrayed Anne as a witch who had seduced Henry VIII away from the Catholic Church. Her monstrous nature, he wrote, was visible in her supposed deformities, including a goiter and a sixth finger."
A Hever Castle panel portrait of Anne Boleyn was examined with infrared reflectography and found to include a deliberate reworking of the hands to show five fingers. The portrait shows Anne in a black dress with lace trim, a dark French hood, and a pearl necklace with a B-shaped pendant, holding a red rose. The reworking appears aimed at countering Elizabethan-era slanders that claimed physical deformities. Tree-ring dating places the panel in 1583, making it the earliest scientifically dated panel portrait of Anne Boleyn. The analysis involved the Hamilton Kerr Institute.
Read at Artnet News
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