Friday, January 25, 2013

Portrait Identification

One of the fascinations of studying history and its artifacts is how often errors end up repeated as facts.  The portrait of Catherine Parr, for example, with its wildly out of period headdress (Parr would certainly have been in a French hood, a fashion partly popularized by none other than The Bullen) - which is actually of Catherine of Aragon (article here, and a triumph in illustrating the relevance of period/silhouette!).  The discussion thread in the first link is a great example of why I love Historical Fiction Online, and also includes a VERY nice mis-identification, of the Earl of Southampton for his own great-great granddaughter!

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