The King's Bedpost: Reformation and Iconography in a Tudor Group Portrait

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CUP Archive, 1993 - Art - 267 pages
The King's Bedpost is a lavishly-illustrated detective story about a painting. Edward VI and the Pope is an important and fascinating visual allegory of the Reformation; but when and why was it painted? Following up a sequence of clues to answer these questions, the author embarks on a fascinating and unusual voyage of historical exploration that takes the reader into book illustration and scriptural iconography, Tudor religion and politics, anti-papal propaganda and iconoclastic manoeuvres. The discovery of previously unrecognised pictorial sources conclusively re-dates the painting, and opens a wide-ranging discussion of art and image-making under Edward VI and Elizabeth I. A large and varied cast of characters joins the Tudor monarchs as the tale unfolds and the painting ultimately becomes the key to a series of hitherto locked doors.

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Contents

and the Pope A Painting
13
another Textpicture
23
Bible Illustrations
37
Art
49
and Heemskerck
67
The Idolatry of Rome
94
Londons Idol
108
John Foxe and The Acts and Monuments of 1570
149
Marcus Gheeraerts the elder 167
167
Junius Heemskerck and Elizabeth
185
Conclusion
214
Notes
220
List of illustrations
250
Index
257
Copyright

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