Lucas de heere artistic labels

A Comparison of the ‘An Allegory of the Tudor Succession’ Paintings

Introduction

Monarchical portraiture has existed for millenia across many cultures.

Depicting a powerful ruler through paintings, writing, music and statues has its roots in propaganda and shows a desire to be remembered once deceased. Those who could afford it worked hard to ensure their image outlived them, and it mattered so much so that other rulers would work just as hard to remove their predecessors from the historical record.

In particular, the Egyptian pharaohs post-Amarna period practised damnatio memoriae, the act of erasing the names and destroying depictions of predecessors to remove them from history. In England’s Early Modern period, the regent’s drive to depict oneself persisted, creating some of the most iconic examples of royal portraiture in English history, such as Hans Holbein’s Portrait of Henry VIII (Fig 1) and Sir Anthony Van Dyck’s Triple Portrait of Charles