Henry VIII Painted by Hans Holbein the Younger, 1537
Holbein's Henry VIII of 1537, painted three years after the Act of Supremacy made the king head of the church in England. The frontal stance and the widened shoulders were an invention of this portrait type, and they were copied for the rest of the reign because they said what the new title needed said.
The break with Rome began as a marriage case and ended as a constitutional revolution. The Act of Supremacy of 1534 did not merely deny papal jurisdiction; it vested in the crown the power to define doctrine, appoint bishops, visit monasteries and try heresy — powers no English king had held. Holbein arrived at court in the middle of that process and produced the image by which the king is still recognised. Its authority is deliberate, and it was manufactured. See how Henry VIII reshaped religion and power in Tudor England.
Public domain — source (Wikimedia Commons). Free to reuse under the stated licence.
