Henry Gillard Glindoni

Work

© Wellcome Collection, London

An X-ray analysis of a 19th-century painting by Henry Gillard Glindoni has revealed a dark secret beneath the depiction of the polymath and royal advisor John Dee performing an experiment before Queen Elizabeth I. Dee was originally depicted standing in a circle of human skulls, a motif that was probably painted over shortly after the painting was created because it seemed too bizarre to the client. However, in 16(th)-century Tudor England, the boundaries between magic and natural philosophy were quite fluid.