Channel 4 showed an excellent programme last night called "The Genius of British Art". It was presented by David Starkey and focused on royal portraiture, using Hans Holbein's images of the Tudors as its starting point to examine the way portraits have been used to convey power and other messages about the monarch to their viewers. The first 20 minutes are particularly worth watching, with some excellent analysis of portraits of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. You also get to see Starkey doing an impression of his old university tutor, the famously grumpy Geoffrey Elton.
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