Extraordinary images have been discovered hidden beneath two 500-year-old paintings at the National Portrait Gallery.
A version of The Flagellation of Christ has been found on the canvas underneath a portrait of Thomas Sackville, the Tudor statesman and poet.
A portrait of Sir Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth I’s spymaster and secretary, is thought to have been painted on wooden blocks previously used for a depiction of the Virgin and Child. The images were revealed with infra-red reflectography and X-radiography during a five-year study at the gallery into the working practices of Tudor artists.
This has allowed the images to be seen underneath layers of paint without disturbing the main works. Experts are hopeful of making further discoveries when other Tudor paintings are X-rayed as part of their conservation.
Dr Tarnya Cooper, chief curator of the National Portrait Gallery, said: “It has been really exciting to discover these images beneath portraits. The re-use of wooden panels is an example of Tudor recycling, which was an essential part of life in the past. And yet, the people in the portraits painted over the top were perhaps unlikely to have known the panels were second-hand.
“In the case of Sir Francis Walsingham, the Protestant spymaster with the Roman Catholic image of the virgin and child beneath, you do wonder if the artist might be enjoying a private joke at the expense of the sitter.”
The works go on display today in an exhibition, Hidden: Unseen Paintings Beneath Tudor Portraits. Visitors are also shown the X-ray images alongside copies of the concealed paintings.
The portrait of Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset, is dated 1601, by an unknown artist. The underlying image of the flagellation is believed to be based on an engraving of the work, which first appeared on a fresco in the Borgherini Chapel in Rome by Sebastiano del Piombo after designs by Michelangelo.
Infra-red scans of the Walsingham portrait revealed at least three figures underneath. These are likely to be of the Virgin Mary with the infant Christ, and either Joseph or an angel.
Dendrochronology (tree-ring) analysis suggests the panel was first used between 1547 and 1579, while the portrait of Walsingham dates to the mid 1580s.
