After carrying out restoration work on a painting by a famous artist, an ominous face suddenly appeared on the canvas, which had long been hidden under several layers of paint and varnish.

This is a painting of a Shakespearean scene by the eighteenth-century artist Joshua Reynolds, who died in 1792.

The name of the painting is “The Death of Cardinal Beaufort”. At the head of the bed, directly above the dying Beaufort’s head, a figure with fangs and a sinister expression was drawn.

“The literal representation of a poetic metaphor in this monstrous figure did not conform to some artistic conventions of the time,” said John Chu, the foundation’s senior national curator of paintings and sculpture.

Examining the painting, National Fund experts discovered that the villain on the canvas was painted by several artists who covered him with six layers of paint. Scientists concluded that these changes were made after the death of its creator Reynolds. Source