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Edinburgh Castle poster ONE OF Scotland's most important historical figures will soon be seen in a new light after the cleaning of a portrait of John Knox resulted in the discovery that it could be the only genuine painting of him. Until now the only known authentic portrait of the 16th century Protestant leader has been a small oval woodcut published by Theodore Beza in Geneva in 1580, copied from a picture painted in Edinburgh the previous year by King James VI's artist, Adrian Vanson.
It had been assumed that a painting of Knox owned by Edinburgh University for more than 300 years was based on this three inch woodcut, but new restoration work suggests the picture is more likely to be a contemporary copy of Vanson's portrait.
While restoring the portrait, Clare Meredith, the conservator, discovered that it had in fact been later restored to look like the woodcut and contained a far more detailed depiction of Knox than ever seen before.
Professor Duncan Macmillan, the curator of the Talbot Rice Gallery at the university, said that, with the original portrait now unaccounted for, the restored painting appears to be the only known painting of Knox.
"We had always assumed that the portrait we had of Knox was drawn from the woodcut which is tiny," he said.
"But the cleaning work that has just been finished suggests the painting is copied from the original, and now lost, portrait of Knox which gives us far more detail.
"The picture shows how he must have looked in his latter years and is less benign than the woodcut. You can see the fierceness in his eyes which many people associate with Knox but there is also far more detail in his hands and the bible he is holding.
"He has often, and unfairly, got a bad press. He was one of the pioneers of universal education and democracy and showed that people could challenge the power of the crown. He led a largely bloodless Protestant reformation free from persecution and it is appropriate on the eve of the Scottish elections that we look at the father of the nation."
Donald Smith, curator of John Knox House on Edinburgh's Royal Mile, added: "For years this portrait has hung in the university without anyone realising its full significance.
"It has always been a puzzle as to why our portraiture of such a leading figure is so thin but this provides far more detail than the woodcut and shows a striking, brooding figure and a direct likeness of Knox.
"He remains one of Scotland's most mythologised figures, whose religious views may remain contentious but whose political views have become the orthodoxy. To gain an insight into how one of Scotland's most important figures might have looked is very exciting."
Known as the Father of the Scottish Presbyterian Church, John Knox was born in 1505 and, although originally ordained as a Catholic priest, he was converted to Protestantism by George Wishart in 1545- 6.
Knox joined the rebel Protestant nobles and, under French siege at St Andrews Castle, made his name as a preacher.
After capture, he spent 18 months in a French galley, then arrived in England in 1549, preaching and helping Thomas Cranmer write the 42 Articles and Second Prayer Book (1552). In Europe during Mary Tudor's reign, he wrote First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women (1558), against the Catholic queens.
On returning to Scotland in 1559, he was instrumental in drawing up the Presbyterian body of beliefs and organisation adopted by the Kirk from 1560. Following the expulsion of the French, he led the Protestants in Edinburgh, condemning the Catholic Mary Queen of Scots and helping determine the form of the Scottish Reformation. Famous for preaching "hell-fire and damnation" to Mary Queen of Scots, it was said of Knox: "Here is one who never feared the face of man." He died in 1572.
The picture will go on display as part of the Object Lessons exhibition at the Talbot Rice Gallery on 7 June. Source - The Scotsman ================================================
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