Image: Ed and pope

Description: Edward VI and the Pope: An Allegory of the Reformation. National Portrait Gallery, London. Inscribed on open book, centre left: "THE WORDE OF THE LORD ENDURETH FOR EVER"; on ribbons of pope's tiara: "IDOLATRY" and "SUPERSTIC[ION]"; on pope's chest: "ALL FLESHE IS GRASSE" ('All flesh is grass,' from Isaiah 40:6, meaning the body is ephemeral); lower left in the golden frame: "POPS" and "FEYNED HOLINE[SS]". The painting represents the handing over of power from Henry VIII to his son Edward VI. Henry lies in bed, and Edward sits on a dais beneath a cloth of state, with a book at his feet containing a text from Isaiah, which falls onto the slumped figure of a pope. The pope points a triple cross towards two monks, lower left, who pull on chains attached to Edward's dais. Standing to Edward's side is a figure identified as his uncle, Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset and Lord Protector. Other figures on the right represent Edward's Privy Council and include the Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer (in white), the Lord Privy Seal John Russell (grey beard), and William Paget (forked beard), the Comptroller of the King's Household. At top right is a picture of iconoclasm, the smashing of idols, an activity approved of by Cranmer and many religious reformers. The scholarship on this painting is conflicted. It was once taken for granted that the painting was contemporary with the succession of Edward VI in 1547. Dr Margaret Aston, in The King's Bedpost, a book devoted to this painting, has claimed instead that the work could not have been painted before the late 1560s. She bases her theory on the similarities between the sphinx bedpost (foot of Henry's bed) and between the column in the iconoclastic scene and those in two engravings of pictures by Maerten van Heemskerk produced between 1564 and 1569. Roy Strong has accepted Aston's redating of the picture but regards many of her views on the painting's significance as conjectural. Jennifer Loach has challenged Aston's reading of the picture, disputing her identification of some of the figures (she accepts the ones mentioned above, however), and believes that the painting was a piece of contemporary propaganda, created during Edward VI's reign. (References: Margaret Aston, The King's Bedpost. Reformation and Iconography in a Tudor Group Portrait, Cambridge, 1993; Roy Strong, The Tudor and Stuart Monarchy. Pageantry, Painting, and Iconography, Woodbridge (UK), 1995; Jennifer Loach, Edward VI, Yale University Press, 1999.)
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Credit: Karen Hearn, Dynasties: Painting in Tudor and Jacobean England, 1530–1630, London: Tate Publishing, 1995, p. 76. See also National Portrait Gallery: NPG 4165   While Commons policy accepts the use of this media, one or more third parties have made copyright claims against Wikimedia Commons in relation to the work from which this is sourced or a purely mechanical reproduction thereof. This may be due to recognition of the "sweat of the brow" doctrine, allowing works to be eligible for protection through skill and labour, and not purely by originality as is the case in the United States (where this website is hosted). These claims may or may not be valid in all jurisdictions. As such, use of this image in the jurisdiction of the claimant or other countries may be regarded as copyright infringement. Please see Commons:When to use the PD-Art tag for more information. See User:Dcoetzee/NPG legal threat for original threat and National Portrait Gallery and Wikimedia Foundation copyright dispute for more information. This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required. See Commons:Licensing for more information. .
Author: Artist unknown. Uploaded by qp10qp
Usage Terms: Public domain
License: Public domain
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