The Earl of Essex as a boy?
The Earl of Essex as a boy?
Elizabethan portraiture is a fascinating subject, not least because most of the sitters look like nobody on god's earth. Also, they are quite frequently identified as a) Queen Elizabeth or b) Mary Queen of Scots even when they are male. So arguing the identity of an Elizabethan portrait on the grounds it looks a bit like another portrait is not really the act of a rational being. Still...
Possibly over-egging the pudding? 
 
A famous Hilliard miniature from the 1580s showing a glam teenage boy. Apparently a ginger, he is wearing orange. And white. Much prettier than Flower Boy, and with a ravishing hint of a smile. But is it just FB done by a more courtly artist, who is better able to show him as 'verie comly & bewtifull'?