Source
18 Jun 2025 – 22 Dec 2025
Exhibition 'Imagining Wolsey: The Invention of an English Cardinal' in Christ Church Picture Gallery
Marking the 500th anniversary of the initial founding of Christ Church by Cardinal Thomas Wolsey in 1525, this exhibition will present a range of images of the Cardinal from an anonymous Tudor oil portrait to Jonathan Pryce’s representation of him in Wolf Hall.
Without a firmly-secured contemporary portrait of Wolsey, posterity was given a free hand to imagine a Cardinal whose humble beginnings led to a stellar ascent and ended in a dramatic fall from grace and lonely death. It might have been these dramatic biographical contrasts that fuelled Britain’s enduring fascination with him – a fascination that found expression on stage and in film and in a variety of collectables from cigarette cards to serving plates.
