Hans Holbein: New Discoveries
Not Just the Tudors
History Hit
4.8 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 13 November 2025
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Henry VIII’s commanding gaze, Thomas More’s intellect, Anne of Cleves’ cautious poise; Hans Holbein’s portraits didn’t just depict the Tudors, they defined them. His astonishing realism gave us not just faces but personalities. But how do we truly know the artist behind the art?
Professor Suzannah Lipscomb welcomes back Dr. Elizabeth Goldring, whose groundbreaking research using cutting-edge technology and scientific analysis has uncovered the secrets beneath Holbein’s paint layers, revealing hidden colours, lost details, and radical working methods.
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Presented by Professor Suzannah Lipscomb. The researcher is Max Wintle, audio editor is Amy Haddow and the producer is Rob Weinberg. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.
All music courtesy of Epidemic Sounds.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, I'm Professor Susanna Lipscomb, and welcome to Not Just the Tudors from History Hit, |
| 0:08.0 | the podcast in which we explore everything from Anne Boleyn to the Aztecs, from Holbein to the Huguenose, |
| 0:14.6 | from Shakespeare to Samarise, relieved by regular doses of murder, espionage and witchcraft. |
| 0:21.2 | Not in other words, just the Tudors, but most definitely also the Tudors. |
| 0:30.1 | I want you to close your eyes, and there's of course you're driving a car, |
| 0:35.9 | and picture the world of the Tudors. The bulging figure of Henry VIII and his glittering court, their fine, sumptuous clothing, |
| 0:44.9 | they're smooth, engaged countenances. Now ask yourself, how do we know what that world |
| 0:51.8 | looked like? The answer, I think, lies with one man, and Holbein. |
| 0:58.1 | Holbein wasn't just a painter. |
| 1:00.3 | He was an artist of many dimensions, |
| 1:03.1 | but he was also a visual storyteller, |
| 1:05.6 | a master who gave faces to the names that shaped our history. |
| 1:09.5 | These are not just likenesses. |
| 1:11.5 | They are politics, |
| 1:17.5 | propaganda and power, preserved forever on wooden vellum. Thanks to the realism of Holbein's portraits, |
| 1:23.1 | we imagine we encounter not only the faces, but the inner workings of the minds of men and women who lived, breathed and schemed. We feel we can witness their authority and ambition, their pride and |
| 1:29.0 | their fears, all captured so vividly, so immediately that they seem to collapse the five |
| 1:34.3 | centuries between us. In previous episodes of not just the Tudors, I've explored Hans |
| 1:39.8 | Holbein's early years, his life in the Tudor Court, and even toured an exhibition of his portraits at Buckingham Palace. |
| 1:46.4 | Do go back again and take a listen to those episodes. |
| 1:49.2 | But today, I'm thrilled to be finding out about the recent groundbreaking discoveries that are revolutionizing how we understand Tudor Court's most famous portraitist. |
| 1:59.3 | I'm delighted to welcome back Dr. Elizabeth Goldring. |
... |
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