Anne Boleyn won the heart of King Henry VIII, gave birth to one of the country's most well-known monarchs, and lost her head in 1536, but her appearance has continued to challenge art historians and online sleuths, according to BBC.
Now a computer science team believes they have discovered a previously unknown sketch of Boleyn by using facial recognition on a famous collection of Tudor portraits.
Boleyn became Henry VIII's second wife in 1533, but her reign was short-lived: approximately three years. She was accused of adultery, incest and treason and was executed.
All the painted portraits that exist of her were made after her lifetime, creating a mystery around what she actually looked like and making her appearance the subject of fascination and debate for centuries.”
The research team, led by the University of Bradford, said the new discovery is “exciting” and the methodology could be replicated to do more art detective work. But there is skepticism from within the art history community over the findings.
“We don't have a lifetime painted portrait of her that's absolutely secure, a wonderful painting that we can use as a reference point,” said Dr. Charlotte Bolland, a senior curator for research and 16th-Century collections at the National Portrait Gallery, who is independent from the new study.
She added: “Her reign wasn't necessarily long enough for an established iconography... and there is this tantalizing suggestion that perhaps some of her images might have been deliberately destroyed.”
Although there are no known surviving paintings made in her lifetime, there are a handful of lifelike, yet contested, depictions left. Including a preparatory sketch with her name on it.
It exists within a precious collection of drawings of Tudor court members by the masterful artist Hans Holbein the Younger, now held by the Royal Collection Trust.
Many modern art historians, such as Dr. Bendor Grosvenor, accept the label on this drawing is correct and that it is a surviving contemporary likeness of her.
But there is a counter argument, which claims it was mislabeled.
Despite these opposing theories, what is widely believed, based on written evidence, is that the collection of Holbein drawings does indeed contain a portrait of Anne Boleyn - somewhere.
