Imagining Wolsey: The Invention of an English Cardinal

Marking the 500th anniversary of the initial founding of Christ Church by Cardinal Thomas Wolsey in 1525, this exhibition will present a range 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.