Imagine coming face to face with the extraordinary people who filled the court of King Henry VIII.
Well we can! Thanks to the extraordinary work of the artist hans Holbein the Younger.
Professor Suzannah Lipscomb goes to Buckingham Palace to enter the gallery of the Royal Collection where a brilliant exhibition of Hans Holbein’s works takes us to the very heart of life in the Tudor court - meeting the men and women who witnessed and changed history, Anne Boleyn, Thomas More, Jane Seymour. Thanks to the amazingly characterful drawings of Hans Holbein the Younger we can look them in the eye, weigh them up, consider their motives.
Suzannah explores the movers and shakers of Henry VIII’s inner circle - including one very special Holbein portrait that could be of Anne Boleyn herself, captured in a reflective and intimate moment. Experts have long debated whether it could be Anne at the time she was queen. Now Suzannah and Royal Collections curator Kate Heard discuss the evidence and reach a thrilling conclusion.
And there are other stars of the Tudor world here too - Thomas More, the great humanist, lawyer and politician; Thomas Wyatt, the mercurial diplomat ; as well as lesser known people like Frances De Vere, a dynamic woman captured on paper by Holbein’s genius.
The exhibition Holbein at the Tudor Court is currently open at The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace until Sunday, 14 April 2024. For more information and to book tickets please go to: https://www.rct.uk/visit/the-kings-gallery-buckingham-palace
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