Paintings of Vlad III with Reddish/Blond Hair

You all know, even if only by name, Vlad III (1428 – 1476), also known as Vlad Tepes, Vlad the Impaler or Vlad Dracula.
In 1431, in Nuremberg, his father Vlad II was made by Sigismund of Luxembourg a first-class member of the chivalric Order of the Dragon. The dragon-shaped badge of the order gave rise to his Romanian sobriquet, Dracul ("the Dragon"), and his sons became known as Dracula ("sons of Dracul"), since the word "Dracula" is the Slavonic genitive form of "Dracul".
Thus, Vlad II became the first member of the House of the Drăculești, which ended in the 1650s with Mihnea III Radu (Vlad II's native House was the Basarab).
In modern Romanian, drac means devil, demon, so today dracul means the devil, the demon (-ul is the article).

Order of the Dragon. Reconstruction in Trakai Island Castle museum, Lithuania.

Reconstruction of the emblem based on the sketches in Austrian Museum custody; the original badge is missing.

 

Many people believe that Vlad III was the inspiration for the character of Count Dracula from Bram Stoker's novel, but this is not true, because Stoker knew very little about him. From Stoker's working notes we know that he had initially decided to call his protagonist "Count Wampyr".
Stoker found the name Dracula in the book An Account of the Principalities of Walacchia and Moldavia, written in 1820 by William Witkinson, British consul in Bucarest. Witkinson mentions the name Dracula only three times, referred both to Vlad III and (wrongly) to his father. Regarding Vlad III, the author only reports that he crossed the Danube, attacked and defeated the Turks, but was then pushed back into Wallachia and forced to take refuge in Hungary. His brother then became voivode in his place. And that's all. He doesn't even mentions his habit of impaling his enemies.
However, on page 19 of the book, Stoker finds the following footnote: "Dracula in Wallachian means devil. The inhabitants of Wallachia, yesterday as today, are accustomed to give this nickname to anyone who distinguishes himself by courage, cruelty, or cunning." It is this footnote that makes Stoker decide to change the name of his main character from Count Wampyr to Count Dracula. In fact, in his working notes we find the following statement: “DRACULA in Walacchian language means DEVIL” (Stoker's capital letter).
In modern-day Romania, Vlad III is considered a national hero and one of the greatest Romanian rulers, who fought for the independence of the Romanian lands, and Romanians don't like very much his association with Count Dracula.

Statue of Vlad III in Giurgiu, southern Romania

Recently, I came across some portrait paintings of him, where his hair is fair/reddish, while in other portraits it is very dark. Some of these paintings were made during his lifetime, but the authors never met him personally, and unfortunately the only portrait made by an artist who met him face-to-face has got lost.
This portrait had been commissioned by Niccolò Modrussa, a legate on behalf of Pope Pius II who met Vlad in Buda. He also left a written description of him, clearly intended to give a negative impression of the ruler.

"We saw him imprisoned, and [he was not], indeed, very tall, but sound and strong of limb, with a fierce and dreadful appearance, a large, aquiline nose, inflated nostrils, and a thin and somewhat red face, on which quite prominent eyelashes surrounded wide-open bluish-gray [glaucos] eyes, and which black, thick-haired eyebrows made to appear threatening. In addition his cheeks and entire chin were shaven, and the only part [of his face not shaven were] the upper lips. Swollen temples increased the bulk of his head. A bull-like neck connected the lofty head with his broad shoulders, onto which his black, curly hair reached."

In 1560, a copy was made of the aforementioned portrait, which is now kept in the Ambras Castle in Innsbruk (Austria). 

The famous Ambras Castle portrait

The author, however, took some liberties: for example, he altered Vlad's eyes' colour, painting them brown and not bluish-gray. Some claim that the bigger lower lip too is an alteration, made with the purpose of making him look more cruel (Modrussa’s account doesn’t mention a swollen lower lip). 

In German-speaking countries many pamphlets had been circulating since 1460s, telling stories about Vlad’s cruelties, so it wouldn’t be unlikely that the author of the Ambras Castle portrait would alterate Vlad III’s face to make him look evil and wicked. These pamphlets always had a woodcut on the title page and thanks to the invention of movable type printing, they began circulating in the whole of Europe and with them Vlad’s likeness as well. So, the painters we are going to see below probably draw inspiration from these woodcuts. As you can see, Vlad III is always depicted with his carachteristic pearl cap.

 Magi Chapel of Palazzo Medici-Riccardi, Florence, 1459–1461 (Benozzo Gozzoli)

Detail of Vlad III

The Martyrdom of Saint Andrew, 1470–1480, Belvedere Galleries, Vienna (author unknown)

Vlad III is depicted as the Roman proconsul Aegeas, who ordered the cucifixion of Saint Andrew

 

 

Vlad III as Dragonfighter (probably St. George). 15th century altar in Mălâncrav, Transylvania

As a final note, it's worth mentionig that Vald III' grandfather, Mircea the Elder (Vlad II's father) might have had red hair.