Anne Boleyn

[Kimberly]

They are romanticised and not contemporary

[Yelena Aleksandrovna]

Sometimes is funny to see several portraits about both that were (noticeable) made centuries after they lived and they were idealized for the painters who made those paintings

[jehan]

They are romanticised and not contemporary

Exactly- very Victorian in style. I would say 1860s or so, but that's a guess- could be 20 years either side.

[Kimberly]

This is the only known contemporary image of Anne Boleyn, struck in honour of the queen in 1534
http://www.elizabethan-portraits.com/AnneBoleyn4.jpg

[Adagietto]

Not very flattering, is it? I expect the engraver had his head chopped off.

[Grandduchess Valeria]

Its often said that she wasn't a beauty, but very charming. Guess that can't be fetched by an engraver :-)

[Yelena Aleksandrovna]

I'm so surprised at looking at it, she isn't as she is usually represented on her most famous (idealized) paintings made time after. Not a beauty. Surely her character was the thing that atracted the king to her

[Robert_Hall]

You are judging Anne Boleyn  by today's standards of beauty.  It was different in different ages.   We would not think the real Cleopatra  is an Elizabeth Taylor beauty, but she had men falling all over her. Look at  these things in perspective of their times.

[Rani]

[Lady Nikolaievna]

Anne Boleyn did not have the usual beauty of that time, that was blond hair, blue/green eyes... She had dark hair and eyes, and that was different, but it doesn't mean unattractive. I think she was really beautiful, for what I see in paintings and what I read in descriptions of those who met her. Besides her beauty, she was really charming, talkative, intelligent and had a strong personallity. Isn't that quite enough to catch the King's eye?

[Yelena Aleksandrovna]

The death of the queen

[Grandduchess Valeria]

It looks like a marriage in the background...Henry and Jane maybe? how macabre

[Elisabeth]

You are judging Anne Boleyn  by today's standards of beauty.  It was different in different ages.   We would not think the real Cleopatra  is an Elizabeth Taylor beauty, but she had men falling all over her. Look at  these things in perspective of their times.

Judging from the coins (the only true likenesses of her struck in her lifetime), Cleopatra of the Ptolemies had an even bigger and longer nose than Anne Boleyn (in her coins). The real Cleopatra was certainly no Liz Taylor, just as the real Anne Boleyn was no doubt no Genevieve Bujold. Sex appeal is always unquantifiable, and irreducible to perfectly symmetrical facial features. You only know real sexual charisma when you've encountered it in person. Only then is it indubitably the real thing - no matter what modern pop culture mags and rags want us to believe with their airbrushed images (Bradgelina? give me a break, fatty Liz and pock-marked Dick would have reduced them to tears and irrelevancy, both onstage and off, in a heartbeat!).

[Imperial_Grounds]

It looks like a marriage in the background...Henry and Jane maybe? how macabre

Well, Henry married Jane Seymour almost directly after Anne's death, 11 days if I am correct.... I find that quite disturbing on its own.

[Naslednik Norvezhskiy]

We would not think the real Cleopatra  is an Elizabeth Taylor beauty, but she had men falling all over her.

Sex appeal is always unquantifiable, and irreducible to perfectly symmetrical facial features.

Yes, I guess it can also be "conquering" a moderately sexy queen who is venerated as a godess to boot! In short, one hot "taboo"!