"Scientific analysis of the painting at Hever Castle, her childhood home in Kent, has uncovered evidence that an Elizabethan artist sought to create a visual rebuttal to claims that Henry VIII's ill-fated wife was a witch with a sixth finger on her right hand. While dendrochronological or tree-ring analysis has dated the oak panel to about 1583 within the reign of Anne's daughter, Elizabeth I infrared technology has uncovered a dramatic underdrawing."
"A discarded triangular form beneath Anne's 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. In the 16th century, artists used patterns drawn from life in brief sittings, so that they could reproduce royal portraits consistently."
"The Hever Rose underdrawing shows that the artist initially used the so-called B pattern, which generally focused on Anne's head and shoulders, before adapting it to debunk the slander of the day as a lie. Dr Owen Emmerson, an assistant curator at Hever, said: By clearly displaying five digits on each hand, the portrait acts as a visual rebuttal to hostile rumours and as a defence of Anne Boleyn and, by extension, of her daughter Elizabeth's legitimacy."
Scientific analysis at Hever Castle uncovered an underdrawing beneath the Hever Rose portrait of Anne Boleyn. Dendrochronology dated the oak panel to about 1583, within Elizabeth I's reign. Infrared imaging revealed a discarded triangular form beneath Anne's right arm and evidence that the artist altered an inherited B pattern to show her holding a red rose. The final composition clearly displays five digits on each hand, countering contemporary rumours that Anne had a sixth finger. The alteration functioned as a visual rebuttal of slander and as a defense of Anne Boleyn and of Elizabeth's legitimacy. Anne was executed in 1536 after conviction for treason.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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