Henry VIII was never a man of Catholic tastes. He may have married six times, but the women he chose, with the exception of Anne Boleyn, were decidedly similar in the way they looked – at least to judge by their portraits. The recent discovery that a painting long believed to represent Catherine Parr, Henry’s sixth wife, is actually a portrait of Catherine of Aragon, his first, has led curators at Hever Castle to a bold conclusion. Henry VIII had a “type”.
The king married the Spanish widow of his late brother Arthur in 1509 when he was 17 and she 23. Catherine was said to be a woman of beauty and ‘agreeable and dignified manners’. Henry certainly had no objections on that front. Catherine had thick auburn hair and pale skin, both qualities much admired in Tudor England.
Catherine Parr, who married Henry in 1543, just a few years before he died, was also auburn-haired and pale-faced. A contemporary portrait by the artist William Scrots shows her to have had elegantly arched eyebrows, delicate features and hazel eyes. Like Catherine of Aragon, who in the Hever Castle portrait has boldly painted lips and cheeks, she has an elegantly small nose.
This is not the first time the two women have been confused. A portrait at Lambeth Palace thought to show Catherine Parr has similarly been reanalysed and declared to be a likeness of Catherine of Aragon. Meanwhile, the identification of a portrait miniature by Hans Holbein, believed to capture Catherine Howard, was thrown open to question last year, with an art historian suggesting that the sitter was actually Anne of Cleves.
One major difference between Catherine of Aragon and Catherine Parr would have been difficult to capture in portraiture. While the former was rather short and of a healthy build – a miniature shows her to have had a positively fleshy face and blue eyes – the latter was willowy and the tallest of Henry’s wives. Parr’s height would have given her an advantage at a time when women were admired for extra inches. Mary, Queen of Scots was striking at almost six feet tall.
But there is no escaping the fact that the Hever Castle portrait is highly stylised. No Holbein, it is comparatively flat and lifeless, making Catherine of Aragon look less like a human than a porcelain doll. Her fair hair and pale skin have been highlighted intentionally because they were believed to reflect inner purity and cleanliness of soul. Such was the fashion for both that even women outside the court resorted to lightening their flesh and tresses with serums and balms. Venetian Ceruse, a white foundation of white lead and vinegar, was liberally applied to the face, and sulphur and saffron were similarly used for bleaching and blonding. An artist’s paintbrush had the potential to do an even better job of it. This is a portrait painted to reassure a king prone to paranoia.
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