If an Anne Boleyn portrait is really Elizabeth I, there's a good reason

"She was King Henry VIII's second wife of six wives, and she was famously beheaded at the Tower of London for treason in 1536. But the way she actually looked in real life still remains a mystery, mostly informed by one iconic portrait painted decades after her death. Now, Owen Emmerson, a Tudor historian, has a bold claim. The face in that portrait is not actually of Anne Boleyn but that of her daughter, Elizabeth I."

"CHANG: And the importance of linking this particular or, at least, ostensible portrait of Anne Boleyn to Elizabeth I's likeness is to show a legitimate line of succession."

The National Portrait Gallery's famous portrait long described as Anne Boleyn may actually depict Elizabeth I. An art-historical attribution links the painting's style to multiple works that show Elizabeth's face. The attribution suggests Elizabeth's likeness was retroactively mapped onto images of her mother and half-sister. The reuse of Elizabeth's image functioned as political propaganda to assert a legitimate line of succession amid Catholic plots and the queen's excommunication. An exhibition of Anne Boleyn likenesses presents this reinterpretation and its implications for Tudor portraiture and dynastic legitimacy.

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