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This x-ray image of a woman, found hidden underneath a 1580s portrait of Queen Elizabeth I, has fascinated researchers and the public. It’s led many to come to believe that this is a secret image of Elizabeth’s disgraced mother, Anne Boleyn, and that Elizabeth had purposely painted over this image to preserve her mother’s memory. But, is this image really of Anne Boleyn? And if it’s not, who could it be? I’ll reveal a re-creation of this hidden woman, and then we’ll do a little detective work.

0:00 The Hidden Portrait
2:33 Elizabeth’s Relationship with Anne
4:22 The Portrait in Question
5:37 Mystery Woman Revealed & Who Is This

Fifteen years ago, the National Portrait gallery undertook some research for their Making Art in Tudor Britain project. The project revealed some unexpected characters underneath 16th century portraits, using Infrared Reflectography and X-rays.

The image that most interested the researchers was this portrait of Queen Elizabeth I, because it revealed what appeared to be a dark-haired, dark-eyed woman staring out from beneath the layers of paint.

Painting panels were commonly re-used in Tudor times, they were valuable commodities. So was there be a hidden or personal meaning behind the re-use of this specific panel? Could Elizabeth have purposely been trying to preserve an image of her Mother, since so many were destroyed?

Let’s first take a look at the image we see today - This portrait of Queen Elizabeth was painted in the 1580s - and we can tell it’s been altered in multiple layers. Infrared revealed that the bunch of flowers in her hand were painted over what she was originally holding - a snake. Snakes can be emblems of wisdom, but in the religious environment the Tudors lived in, it was likely to be confused for a sign of the Devil. So as a result, it was painted over in the later stages of portrait.

This is another curious detail that connects the portrait to Anne Boleyn, who was famously accused of witchcraft.

When looking under the layers of Elizabeth’s painting, the researchers could see immediately that this hidden portrait was painted by someone highly skilled, but it appeared to be unfinished - only the head and some of the shoulders had been painted. They could make out a French Hood in the image, which is a style that Anne Boleyn was famous for wearing.

I’m going to reveal my re-creation of this woman’s face, and then we’ll see if it looks like the paintings we have of Anne Boleyn.

This re-creation was challenging because this hidden face is somewhat incomplete. We can really only see the right side of her face, so I had to somewhat invent the jawline and ear. While her eyes and hair look dark, It was technically impossible to tell the hair or eye color, because of the nature of radiography like this - it will always be in black and white.

There is certainly some resemblance to Anne Boleyn - I see it especially in this Hever Castle Version.

However, there are quite a few reasons why this is not a portrait of Anne Boleyn.

Upon closer inspection, the style of her clothing is a little too late to be the fashion of Anne’s time. This type of French hood was worn in the 1570s and 80s. Another piece that’s barely visible is what appears to be a ruff - another fashion from about 40 years after Anne’s death.

The best evidence would be to date the panel using dendrochronology, so that’s what the researcher did next. They ultimately found that the wood came from a tree that was cut down between 1572 to 1582, which means that the panel was reused by Elizabeth only a few years after it was made.

Another reason is more emotional - Elizabeth already celebrated Anne Boleyn with her possessions, and had a portrait of Anne on her own finger, in the Chequers ring. She didn’t really need to hide an image of her mother or keep it a secret by this point in England.

So, unless this is a portrait commissioned later, of Anne Boleyn wearing 1580s attire, it’s not her. But then who could it be?

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