Revealed after 230 years, face of the not so Young Pretender
HE is the romantic hero of art and literature who led an uprising to reclaim his father’s throne.
Now historians have gained a closer look at the real – and much older – Bonnie Prince Charlie after a digital image was created using his death mask.
Prince Charles Edward Stuart, known as the Young Pretender, led the Frenchbacked Jacobite Rising of 1745.
His army was defeated by government forces at the Battle of Culloden, near Inverness, on April 16, 1746, and he died, aged 67, while living in Rome.
He is often depicted as a charming young man in paintings, but the new image is said to be a faithful portrayal of him in his older years.
Forensic artist Hew Morrison explained how he created the image using a death mask at the West Highland Museum, Fort William, and a photo of another copy of the mask at Inverness Museum.
He said the aim was to create a ‘true likeness’ of the prince, particularly his nose, which has been shown as ‘crooked’ in some copies of the death mask across the UK. He believes the crookedness was caused by movement during the casting process, but he found an undamaged copy in Fort William.
He said: ‘I photographed their mask to scale, and then superimposed the nasal area over the scaled photograph of the Inverness Museum copy.’ This revealed the ‘face of a curious, strong, but heavily burdened character’.
The image is on display at Inverness Museum. A spokesman for operator High Life Highland said: ‘We believe this new portrait is the only opportunity we have of coming face to face with a true likeness of Bonnie Prince Charlie.’