Tuesday, February 05, 2013

Richard III: National Portrait gallery painting vs. facial reconstruction

I've long been interested in Richard III, whose very striking (as well as sensitive and thoughtful-looking) National Portrait gallery portrait in London helped inspire Josephine Tey's enjoyable The Daughter of Time. Thus, I was delighted by the news of the apparent finding of his skeleton beneath a Leicester, U.K. parking lot.

Today, the researchers issued a pictorial reconstruction of his face, from work on the skeleton.  For my money, it looks a lot like the painting - further evidence supporting its authenticity, if the researchers weren't cheating, which admittedly might be a concern.  (Note:  All existing paintings of Richard were done some years after his death, but, due to similarities between them, it's believed that they may reflect a common source, such as a lost contemporaneous painting.)

You be the judge.  The first one is the painting from the National Portrait gallery, while the second one is the reconstruction:

They certainly look similar to me.

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