£50 Art Is Genuine

A painting of Mary Queen of Scots, one of only two thought to have been made in her lifetime, has been discovered - in the National Portrait Gallery's very own store. The portrait was bought for £50 by the art gallery in 1916 at Christie's. But later it was written off as an 18th century fake and was left to gather dust. One day, however, Tarnya Cooper, curator of 16th-century collections at the gallery, decided to take a second look at the art, her instinct telling her it could just be original. The work was x-rayed. Beneath a layer of ugly yellow varnish and a dull, dark background lay an oval device framing the face, painted to look like marble, and the words Maria Scotiae (Mary of Scotland). The overpainting is thought to date from the 18th century. A conservator worked for a year to gently remove the overpainting and return the work to its original state. It is a particularly exciting discovery given the existence of just one other portrait known to have been made in her lifetime. Her execution came after she was tried for treason, having been implicated in the Catholic Babington plot and a scheme to assassinate Elizabeth. It took three blows of the axe to kill her. Under her black gown she wore a red bodice and petticoat - the Catholic colour of blood and of martyrdom. For the full story - click the title Irish Art