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"The portrait is believed to have been painted by him"

I changed the sentence and made it like this:

"It's believed that he (has painted/painted) the portrait"

I'm not sure which tense I should use because I heard a rule that said with 'that-clause' the verb has to be in a tense prior to the main verb or something like that I'm not sure can you explain me that?

Eddie Kal
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Lautde Carfeg
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    Please see these answers and they should be helpful: 1. https://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/258958/using-present-tense-when-quoting-from-the-past-idea-or-utterance, 2. https://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/241613/reported-speech-backshifting-or-not, 3. https://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/257910/past-tense-of-should. – Eddie Kal Nov 22 '20 at 03:54
  • @EddieKal i read it it became clearer but i still dont know whether to use the present perfect and past, i dont understand the difference of these tenses sometimes. – Lautde Carfeg Nov 22 '20 at 07:54
  • I would use "painted". The sentence reports a fact (in the present simple), and the fact is "he" painted the portrait. There is no need to use the present perfect, since the focus is not on the result of that action. – Eddie Kal Nov 22 '20 at 08:15

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