Queen Elizabeth I portraits to go head to head

There will be a rare chance this week to compare two famous portraits of Queen Elizabeth I as they are displayed together for the first time in 25 years, after art detective work proved both were painted on timber from the same two oak trees, in the same studio and almost certainly by the Tudor genius Nicholas Hilliard. The two paintings, which show the queen magnificently dressed and festooned with pearls and gold chains, are known as the Phoenix and the Pelican portraits, after the jewels hanging on her breast. They are normally hundreds of miles apart, the Phoenix owned by the National Portrait Gallery but on long loan to the Tate, the Pelican in the Walker collection in Liverpool. The Pelican is on the left, above. For one week from today they will be on display at the NPG in London, after experts spent months poring over them to resolve the mystery of their origin. Elizabeth would have been in her 40s, halfway through her reign, when they were painted in the 1570s – but not a line or wrinkle shows. She rigorously controlled her image, and continued to be portrayed as a red-haired, fresh-faced young woman into old age when she was toothless and bald. The phoenix became a symbol of her virginity and the rebirth of the Tudor dynasty – she also wears the Tudor red rose – and the pelican self-sacrifice and her role as mother of the nation. The pelican painting was originally much more vivid, with a crimson background. Scientists at the NPG have now proved that both pictures are on wooden panels from the same oaks, – four outer boards from one, the centre of each picture from another single tree – which grew in the eastern Baltic, probably Poland. Tracings prove that the two heads were taken from the same original template, though the eyes in one have been raised, possibly because it was begun before the approved template for the official portrait arrived. Both are believed to derive from a miniature by Hilliard, who became Elizabeth's official court artist in 1570, and are almost certainly by him personally or by his studio. He was renowned for exquisitely detailed jewel-like miniatures – art historians had debated whether he ever worked on a bigger scale – but research has revealed that he did also accept commissions for portraits "in large". David Crombie, of the National Museums Liverpool, said it was unusual to find such decisive links between two works. "The project underlines the value of this kind of collaborative work between conservators, curators and other specialists." The two portraits will be on display together at the NPG, London, until 19 September. www.npg.org.uk/matb