History Alive: Yr13 Holbein at the Tudor Court

The Year 13 History class visited the Holbein at the Tudor Court exhibition at Buckingham Palace at the end of March.  The students braved the torrential rain on our scenic walk to the palace, which included two royal carriages from the working stables at the Royal Mews that stopped traffic and tourists on The Mall (we are still unsure who waved from them).  After a rather lengthy queue to visit the exhibition we finally entered the Queen’s Gallery.  We were met with beautiful Holbein paintings and over forty preparatory drawings of a range of members of the Tudor court but also regular members of Tudor society far beneath royalty.

Holbein was a renowned painter of the sixteenth century, he came to London in 1526 and spent much of his working life here.  From his time in England, we gained a real insight into the members of Henry VIII’s court, and looking upon the paintings that hung in the royal residences, five hundred years ago, we were struck by the fact that time is all that separates us from those that we are studying as part of our A-level course.

Highlights of the exhibition, for the students, were the portraits of Henry VIII, Edward VI and the only known contemporary image of Anne Boleyn, which, interestingly, was a preparatory sketch, perhaps to be discarded as the back of it was used. Presumably, the painting of Anne, from this preparatory sketch, was never finished as she was executed in 1536. Our students could not believe that the images we have of Anne Boleyn are from later paintings. The portraits and tapestries seen all hung in Henry VII and Henry VIII’s court.

Other highlights were the Field of Cloth of Gold and Battle of Spurs paintings which depicted Henry VIII’s desire “for glory and immortality.” This was further exemplified by the display of innovative weaponry he invested in.  One student was struck by the pointlessness of the positioning of the sight and gunshield from 1544, which in this form did not catch-on.   There was also the book, Defence of the Seven Sacraments,  written by Henry VIII on display, for which he was rewarded with the title of Defender of the Faith by the Pope.  The exhibition also shows Holbein’s work depicting other European leaders of the time and Henry VIII’s great rivals, the Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain Charles V and Francis I, King of France.

It is a shame that there was no likeness of Holbein himself in the gallery and equally there were only the Holbein paintings owned by the Royal Collection Trust exhibited there as the Queen’s Gallery does not borrow paintings.  However, the collection of other paintings from the period made up for this and helped the students get a sense of the period.   We, of course, exited through the gift shop and then back out into a slightly drier London but it was not long before the skies opened again.

The Website Team thanks Mrs S Bullock.