Revealed: portrait of Mary Queen of Scots hidden for centuries An unfinished portrait of a woman believed to be Mary Queen of Scots has been discovered hidden beneath another 16th […]

An unfinished portrait of a woman believed to be Mary Queen of Scots has been discovered hidden beneath another 16th century painting.

The ghostly image of the famous monarch emerged after researchers used X-ray photography to examine a portrait of Sir John Maitland, the Lord Chancellor of Scotland.

“It shows that portraits of the Queen were being copied and presumably displayed in Scotland around the time of her execution” The i newsletter cut through the noise Email address is invalid Email address is invalid Thank you for subscribing! Sorry, there was a problem with your subscription. David Taylor, National Trust

The hidden picture, which shows a woman’s face and the outline of her dress and hat, bears striking similarities to other depictions of Mary Queen of Scots made during her lifetime.

The monarch was forced to abdicate the Scottish throne in 1567 after being implicated in her husband’s murder, before being imprisoned by her cousin Elizabeth I and executed in 1587.

The painting hiding her image was created two years after Mary’s death, with historians speculating that the artist may have abandoned the portrait and then covered it up due to her execution.

The discovery has particularly excited curators as relatively few authentic portraits of Mary survive, despite the public fascination she attracted during her lifetime and subsequently.

Unexpected find

The find was made during a collaborative research project conducted by the National Galleries of Scotland and the Courtauld Institute of Art in London.

Dr Caroline Rae, a research fellow at the Courtauld, carried out the x-rays as she studied the work of the Dutch portrait painter Adrian Vanson, who died in the early 1600s.

His portrait of Sir John Maitland is dated 1589 and usually hangs at the 17th century property Ham House in Richmond, near London, which is owned by the National Trust.

The image of Mary emerged as x-rays can penetrate through paint layers but are stopped by pigments containing heavy metals such as lead white, commonly used in Europe at the time.

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“Vanson’s portrait of Sir John Maitland is an important picture – and the remarkable discovery of the unfinished portrait of Mary, Queen of Scots adds an exciting hidden dimension to it,” said David Taylor, curator of pictures and sculpture at the National Trust.

“It shows that portraits of the Queen were being copied and presumably displayed in Scotland around the time of her execution, a highly contentious and potentially dangerous thing to be seen doing.”

Dr Rae said the “exciting revelation” of the hidden portrait showed how modern art history techniques were able to reveal aspects of paintings that had remained hidden for centuries.

The face of the sitter believed to be Mary bears a strong resemblance to two famous miniatures of the Queen created by the famous English artist Nicholas Hilliard.

Historians also believe that her pose, the positioning of her hand and her wired cap and square-necked gown also carry echoes of other portraits of Mary, including a work hanging at Blair Castle in Perthshire.