Hang Around the World: Painting #A15

Wednesday, June 7, 2017

Painting #A15 - King Henry VIII

King Henry VIII
- workshop of Hans Holbein
- oil on canvas (239 x 135 cm) in 1537-47
- Walker Art Gallery (Liverpool)

Note: The original portrait of Henry VIII (1491-1509-1547) of England by Hans Holbein (c.1497-1543, German) in c.1536 was destroyed by a fire in 1698.

Henry VIII (1491-1509-1547, England)
- Hans Holbein the Younger
- oil on panel (89 x 75 cm) in 1540
- Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica (Rome)

Henry VIII was well-known for having had 6 wives:

(1) He annulled his first wife (widow of his elder brother) who gave birth to daughter Mary, but no son.

Catherine of Aragon

["..... Katherine was forced to leave the court. She died at Kimbolton Castle ..... aged 50 .....[and] was buried in Peterborough Abbey..... She was given a table monument."]

2) He framed his second wife for treasonous beheading, as she gave birth to daughter Elizabeth, but no son.

Anne Boleyn

(3) This painting of his above was done during pregnancy by the third wife, who died after giving birth to son Edward.

Jane Seymour
- Hans Holbein the Younger in 1536
- oil on wood (65 x 41 cm)
- Kunsthistorisches Museum (Vienna)

(4) The fourth wife was not consummated, as he found the imported wife not as good-looking as her advanced portrait. (And the stinky smell of his long-term leg wound turned her off.) She accepted the invalidation of marriage, and agreed to call herself a sister of Henry's.

Anne of Cleves
- Hans Holbein the Younger in 1539
- parchment mounted on canvas (65 x 48 cm)
- Louvre (Paris)

(5) The fifth wife was young (17) and unsophisticated, but was soon beheaded for committing adultery, before she could produce a spare heir.

Catherine Howard

(6) The sixth wife (a widow who previously nursed an aged husband) nursed obese Henry for his remaining short life, when pus from his leg ulcer stank every chamber he went.

Catherine Parr

Fates of his 6 wives in 6 words:
"Divorced, beheaded, died,
divorced, beheaded, survived."

While still married the first time, Henry chased after Anne Boleyn.

There is a persistent belief that "Greensleeves" was composed by Henry VIII for his lover Anne Boleyn. Yet, Greensleeves is probably Elizabethan in origin and is based on an Italian style of composition that did not reach England until after his death.

Henry wed Anne Boleyn, for love/lust, and for a son.

"Douce dame jolie" (Sweet Lovely Lady), a song by Guillaume de Machaut.
Henry & Anne - part1 - part2

So, after Henry VIII, there were Edward VI (short-lived), Mary I (nicknamed Bloody Mary), and Elizabeth I, respectively.

The Family of Henry VIII
(L to R: Mary, Edward & Henry VIII & Queen Jane, Elizabet)
- British School (16th century)
- oil on canvas (145 × 356 cm) c.1545
- Haunted Gallery (Hampton Court Palace)

But these 'legitimate' children of Henry did not have their own issues (children).