A Comparison of the ‘An Allegory of the Tudor Succession’ Paintings

🏆 This article was featured on SPA Spotlight 2024-25.

In this historical article, I compare two almost identical Tudor era paintings. The first, by Lucas de Heere was created towards the start of Elizabeth I's reign, while the second, a copy by an anonymous painter, was created towards the end of her reign. Very similar yet very different, I investigate the meanings of the similarities and differences.

An excerpt from the introduction:

While the concept of copying a painting almost exactly may seem odd and plagiaristic to the modern artist, copying paintings was a respected art form that assisted the distribution of images around the world for propaganda purposes (a painter who copied others’ work even had their own name – a ‘copyist’). However, what is interesting about comparing these two paintings is what the later artist chose to recreate, what they chose to change and what this tells us about the image that Elizabeth wanted to communicate in her early and late reign.