The Tamesis
Using artificial intelligence, researchers may have identified previously unknown subjects in drawings by Northern Renaissance artist Hans Holbein and re-identified figures in related Holbein paintings. The study, conducted by Karen L. Davies and Hassan Ugail, was published in the journal npj heritage science.
Holbein was born in Germany but emigrated to England to escape the European Reformation, initially under the patronage of Oliver Cromwell and Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII’s unhappy second wife. He worked as a portrait painter at the Tudor court from around 1526 until his death in 1543.
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Both of the artworks in question are known as anne boleyn and an unidentified woman— is part of the Royal Collection Trust, which owns some 85 paintings by Holbein. The study pointed out that only 30 of these drawings were related to paintings with clear themes.
Until now, historians have been able to rely only on inscriptions on 18th-century copies of Holbein’s original work to identify the figures in the painting. However, Davis and Ugaier used computational facial recognition technology to show that the “unidentified woman” was actually Boleyn, and that the portrait purported to be of Boleyn was actually a painting by her mother, Elizabeth Howard.
Davis is an independent historian and novelist. She contacted Ugal, a computer science professor at the University of Bradford in West Yorkshire, England, to work with her on the project. Uquel was in the news a few years ago when he claimed that the attribution of a work painted by Raphael had long been disputed.
Their research notes stated that Boleyn’s profile portrait did not match “contemporary eyewitness accounts.” She is shown as having blond hair, a “burly” figure and a double chin, while diplomatic reports and court records from the time described her as slender, with dark hair and a “small neck” – exactly the appearance of the figure in the “Unidentified Woman” portrait.
To resolve this discrepancy, Hassan “looked at the entire series [of Holbein drawings] and compare one image to another to create a huge matrix,” he told The Guardian. “It clustered paintings that were close to each other,” which led the researchers to their conclusion. Davis made it clear that she did not plan to make any clear statements just yet. “I hope there will be a wider debate on reassessment,” she told The Guardian.
In its description of the Boleyn portrait, the Royal Collection Trust acknowledged doubts about its identity, noting that it was based on a later inscription. However, in defense of this identification, the report also stated that the subject’s nightgown was similar to the nightgown Henry gave to Boleyn, and that wear and tear had removed some of the pigment from her hair, possibly making it appear lighter than it originally was.
