A portrait many believe to be of Henry VIII’s third wife is really of her predecessor Anne Boleyn, researchers claim. Facial recognition technology was used to compare possible likenesses of Anne, and found a striking similarity with a picture long said to be of Jane Seymour. The only undisputed portrayal of doomed queen Anne – the so-called Moost Happi medal in the British Museum – was used as a starting point for the project by computer scientist Amit Roy-Chowdhury. Scroll down for video . The portrait of Anne Boleyn (left), which shows a striking similarity to Jane Seymour, was compared against the only undisputed portrayal of Anne – the so-called Moost Happi medal (right) - using facial recognition . His hi-tech method uses differences in facial features to rule whether two pictures are of the same person. It revealed that the picture of Anne hanging in the National Portrait Gallery most likely is not of her at all, and was unable to decide on a second. However, a third portrait at Nidd Hall, North Yorkshire, probably does portray Anne – despite it long being said to depict her successor, the American Association for the Advancement of Science heard at its annual conference in San Jose, California. It had been argued that the painting was of Jane and altered to look more like Anne after her daughter Elizabeth I came to power. For instance, a brooch bearing the initials AB can be seen pinned to the woman’s dress. There are few images of Anne Boleyn after King Henry VIII attempted to erase her from history after her execution in 1536 . The discovery is significant as few images of Anne survive. Henry attempted to erase her from history after having her executed in 1536. Dr Roy-Chowdhury, from the University of California, said: ‘Who is being depicted in a portrait can be an area of considerable controversy among art historians. 'Portraits often have some importance. They represent someone of social standing, or some significant event. 'The goal of this project is to be able to use state-of-the-art face recognition to identify the individuals seen in a particular portrait.'
Facial recognition technology was used to analyse portrait of Anne Boleyn .
Found that it had a striking similarity to picture said to be of Jane Seymour .
It has been argued painting of Jane was altered to look more like Anne .
The discovery is significant as few images of Anne Boleyn have survived .
Henry VIII attempted to erase her from history after her execution in 1536 .
A portrait many believe to be of Henry VIII’s third wife is really of her predecessor Anne Boleyn, researchers claim. Facial recognition technology was used to compare possible likenesses of Anne, and found a striking similarity with a picture long said to be of Jane Seymour. The only undisputed portrayal of doomed queen Anne – the so-called Moost Happi medal in the British Museum – was used as a starting point for the project by computer scientist Amit Roy-Chowdhury. Scroll down for video . The portrait of Anne Boleyn (left), which shows a striking similarity to Jane Seymour, was compared against the only undisputed portrayal of Anne – the so-called Moost Happi medal (right) - using facial recognition . His hi-tech method uses differences in facial features to rule whether two pictures are of the same person. It revealed that the picture of Anne hanging in the National Portrait Gallery most likely is not of her at all, and was unable to decide on a second. However, a third portrait at Nidd Hall, North Yorkshire, probably does portray Anne – despite it long being said to depict her successor, the American Association for the Advancement of Science heard at its annual conference in San Jose, California. It had been argued that the painting was of Jane and altered to look more like Anne after her daughter Elizabeth I came to power. For instance, a brooch bearing the initials AB can be seen pinned to the woman’s dress. There are few images of Anne Boleyn after King Henry VIII attempted to erase her from history after her execution in 1536 . The discovery is significant as few images of Anne survive. Henry attempted to erase her from history after having her executed in 1536. Dr Roy-Chowdhury, from the University of California, said: ‘Who is being depicted in a portrait can be an area of considerable controversy among art historians. 'Portraits often have some importance. They represent someone of social standing, or some significant event. 'The goal of this project is to be able to use state-of-the-art face recognition to identify the individuals seen in a particular portrait.'
Boleyn, researchers claim. Facial recognition technology was used to compare possible similarity with a picture long said to be of Jane striking similarity to Jane Seymour, was compared Jose, California. It had been argued that the painting was of Jane and altered to look more King Henry VIII attempted to erase her from history after her execution in 1536 . The discovery is significant as few images of Anne