The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn

The final pieces for my AS Fine Art Unit 2 project. From the exam paper, I picked out the theme, "Significant Events", and proceed to spin the project into something I've been interested in and obsessing over for quite a few years now, the incredible and enigmatic Anne Boleyn. She was such an important and pivotal character in English history both at her highest point - usually seen as almost single-handedly causing the split between England and the Catholic Church, and at her lowest - being executed for witchcraft among other things.

What I found most fascinating about Anne's story is the fact that she fell in the almost exact same way she came to power. She was the lady-in-waiting for Catherine of Aragon, then turned mistress for Henry VIII and then queen. And then, at the end of her short life, Henry found a mistress in her Jane Seymour, Anne's own lady-in-waiting, who would soon knock Anne off her throne. The only difference was, Catherine escaped the ghastly death by execution that Anne hoped and plotted for her, but Anne didn't. It's almost like by planning her rise to power, she more accurately predicted her downfall.

That's why in these duo pieces, "the rise" and "the fall", I wanted their poses and compositions to mirror each other, and yet contrast in everything else.