Overview
- Infrared reflectography revealed an underdrawing without hands and a discarded triangular form under the right arm, indicating the artist changed course to depict both hands in the final image.
- Tree‑ring analysis dates the oak panel to about 1583, placing the work in Elizabeth I’s reign and making it the earliest scientifically dated panel portrait of Anne Boleyn.
- The composition departs from the standard posthumous “B” pattern, which typically omitted hands, pointing to a deliberate deviation during production.
- Historians link the clear depiction of five digits to Elizabethan smear campaigns, notably Nicholas Sander’s claims, while direct evidence that Elizabeth I commissioned the change remains unproven.
- Hever Castle and the Hamilton Kerr Institute conducted the technical study, and the findings will feature in Hever’s 2027 exhibition, Capturing a Queen: The Image of Anne Boleyn.