#7 Tudor Portraiture with Charlotte Bolland

Charlotte Bolland Interview: 

Tudor Portraiture, symbolism and significance

Intro:   Hello and welcome to a very special episode of the HERstory project podcast. Today we are joined by an extremely special guest, Charlotte Bolland. For those of you who are as obsessed with museums as we are, Charlotte likely needs no introduction. For the rest of you who may be less in the know, Charlotte is the senior curator for research and 16th century painting at London’s National Portrait Gallery. Her research covers a range of topics but largely focuses on the Tudor court and its material culture with a special interest in portraiture and the connections between the Italian and English courts. 

Charlotte has kindly given us some time today to talk not just about all things Tudor portraiture, but to share some insights from her own career for those interested in museum work. 

Senior Curator for research and 16th century 

Questions (background and career): 

• What first got you interested in this period of history and its art? (16thc/tudor portraiture)

• Is curation and museum work something you always knew you wanted to pursue? What was it about this type of work that sparked your interest? 

  • Once you decided this is what you wanted to do, how did you go about pursuing a career in museum curation and public education? 

• Do you have any advice for early career researchers looking to pursue this type of career? 

• What has been one of your favorite highlights of your work and/or research? 

Questions (Tudor Portraiture): 

• For listeners who may be unfamiliar with the topic, can you speak a bit on why portraiture was so important and politically charged  in this period? 

  • For instance, how essential was portraiture in constructing the identity of political power, such as the monarch, monarchy, and the Church in this period? 

• When we’re speaking about the Tudor’s we are talking about quite a long period of just under 120 years, how drastically did portraiture change across this period in style but also in the standard messages sitters or patrons may have been hoping to display? 

  • Did the gender of Mary and Elizabeth for instance see any notable differences in the types of portraiture produced of them during their reigns? 

• Portraiture in this period across Europe was often layered in symbolism, can you tell us about some of the symbolism that was particularly prevalent in Tudor courts? 

  • Are there any particular portraits whose secret symbolic messages you feel particularly drawn to? 

• When thinking about women, particularly women's political power, in the early modern period across Europe, one common theme is courtly women’s use of forms of soft power or cultural power to make a point or sway opinions. Do we see any examples of women in Tudor England using portraiture to intervene in politics? 

  • Could you perhaps share an example of this, if it was indeed occurring? 

• As a final question, what is one thing you think everyone should know about Tudor portraiture?

Portraits mentioned in this episode

Holbein - Christina of Denmark

The Encounter - Portrait drawings, Holbein collection

Miniature of Mary for Charles

Miniature of KoA - ‘his wife’, is this her making a statement about her marriage, likely paired with a portrait of hviii