Elizabeth I created a standard for portraiture in the Early Modern English age of the artform of portraiture. Remember that the time when the paintings were created was often after death or around specific large events as the creation of anything bigger than a palimpsest book or illustrated biblical pocketbook was a marvel given the distance that the ingredients and materials required to create these works travelled and in the circumstances under which they were created. Portrait miniatures were often instead the primary visual medium at the time, not the grand canvas and tapestry scales many royal portraits took in this time. These were created specifically to conjure an idea of grandeur, majesty and awe. Portrait minatures were successfully launched to England by Levina Teerlinc (c.1510-1576) from illuminated manuscript production under the workshop of her continental Dutch father and prior artists who had dabbled after 1450 in some miniatures. She and Esther Inglis, as well as Thomas Hilliard are widely known as some of the more popular portrait miniaturists of the Elizabethan and Tudor court periods.
Keep in mind that Elizabethan portraiture is heavily edited as the portrait was always after the same Darnley likenesses of around 1560 which is why her portraits appear so similar after this time when she ascended to the throne. They were tools of power and authority to symbolise the literal editing of the historical narrative to one befitting a Gynocentric one from this time on. Feminism in the truest sense of the term. These symbolic tools incorporated Elizabeth widely read usage of European and further afield symbolic allegory of mythology taken from Classical and contemporary sources as Elizabeth herself spoke and read in around 6-9 languages fluently and certainly came into contact with many more, a large number of which are today extinct or obsolete languages.[1]
Some of the artists whom Elizabeth worked with being Hilliard, Cornelis Ketel, Federico Zuccaro or Zuccari, Isaac Oliver, and perhaps Gower and Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger. Many of these later editions were created with the intent of being shown to foreign powers, including foreign countries/regions and individuals in the earlier period of Elizabeth's reign. Local work for local owners of portraits in the British elites were laid along their long galleries which paid homage to Elizabeth as Queen specifically to curry favour within her royal court, and became fashionable architectural elements of Elizabethan grand manors. This zeitgeist has been referred to as the cult of Gloriana.
The Family of Henry VIII 1545
Not a sole portrait but this gives us the grounding for the type of world into which Elizabeth was born into. When she was first entering the world into which she found herself she was simply the image that was projected before the world for the benefit of her father.
That is she was the progeny of a great man in a world of great men and not regarded by those in charge of enough money to commission portraiture at the time worth much more, particularly in the idea of the formation of the state craft portraiture certainly for the Tudor s that these matters entailed. Here she is shown very simply as a child in their parental charges, albeit as a princess of a second failed marriage which had by then been moved on into the third, which was seen as surpassing both Mary and Elizabeth's importance for that of their brother who would go on to die as a child and having left very little impact other than to confirm that he was indeed a 14 year old boy from the get-go.
Instead this is an image which represented for Elizabeth the hell into which she had been born. The dynastic succession disputes created and caused utterly by the rakish whims of her rakish father figure. This also confirms her position within the court circles of painters such as Hans Holbein and the role portraiture conveyed in her life, as well as her familiarity and adoption of painting and portraiture to convey particular roles into the forward motions of court life and states craft.[2]
Lady Elizabeth Tudor 1546
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The earliest portraits of Elizabeth were her 1546 portrait as a teenager. At the time she was in between the care of her mother and being a ward of the crown due to her father's sinful displays of domination towards her father by cruelly ripping her away from her care and into the hands of her new cardinal, who proceeded to try to fondle her buttocks at the tender age of 14. This was the world Elizabeth was born into and expected to have her entire life dictated by, the whims and wishes of mediocre male mortals.
Instead we can also infer the symbolism inherent in the family lore Elizabeth was positioned between as the daughter of Anne Boleyn. Boleyn was the chaste mother of Elizabeth, who became pregnant after Henry VIII decided to be a little rake that year. He was inbetween his situationship with his current wife, and because he wanted Anne, he decided to make a new state religion and get with his mistress anyway because even the Pope thought he was being too much of a rake for anyone's good. Boleyn in this portraiture is thought to have given her teenage daughter this dress, as it was her favourite colour, and a short while after was sent to the execution block because Henry was back on his rake business because his gout had lead to his spermatozoa becoming infertile, but rather than blame his own failing, disgusting health and habits, he blamed his mistr-wife.
So in her 1546 portrait, we can see the sort of world and decisions that Elizabeth was allowed to make. None. She existed in a power vacuum based on her Rakish father's decisions of the week, leading to the death of her mother and the destruction of her half-sisters relationships, as a state between being the rightful heir and the ungrateful protestant allowed to live in a predominantly, albeit continental, Catholic European hierarchical structure until Henry created Anglicanism. Even by the artists own hand, this was meant to be a portrait which limited excessive ornamentation, therefore focusing the attention away from luxe towards the purity of Elizabeth in youth as a young, plain girl. This of course sounds ridiculous with hindsight, but remember that at this time Elizabeth's mother had just died for being in the wrong place at the wrong time according to the 'Men' around them both, and in making out Elizabeth to be just a plain, garden variety princess this emphasised her unimportant status at the time. In other words, masking her status to protect her from a fate like that of her mother's by attracting 'the wrong kind of attention' beheaded women of the period seemed to find themselves alongside. Instead, the 1546 portrait was meant to say to a viewer 'here is the daughter of an ex-royal, nothing to see here'. Meanwhile, Elizabeth was in grieving for her mother, whom she could not legally speaking mourn in the traditional manner given it was the kings will the women aforementioned be put to death, in a parting gift from her mother whilst balancing the duties of incumbent and non-incumbent royal court duties.
Symbolic objects such as roses or prayer books were included in some of Elizabeth's earliest portraits. Prayer books indicated her love of reading, study and piety, perhaps also an elevated sense of progressiveness associated with allowing a woman to rule at the time, along with the fact that Elizabeth could even read at the time at all. When these things came to be in the sense of roses, these were harkening to the Tudor lineage through the War of Roses succession crisis of the previous centuries. For her medieval audience (remember we are talking about matters of state) her roses would have signified a dual meaning of her lineage and also millefleur tapestries depiction of the Madonna, a significant replacement of the Catholic imagery when these were used in later portraiture.
On this matter of purity and the death of her mother, this was a constant in her early life. To the point that in a statement to her incumbent parliament on the matter of succession, she declared: ‘Assuredly, if my successor were known to the world, I would never esteem my state to be safe.’[5] Death for women was a constant, and in the Henry Tudor realm, they were seen as particularly replaceable objects. In this way, purity becomes a symbol for the matter of which Elizabeth projected out to the world, whilst also following her own follies and differing opinions from that of men. She instead projected herself onto England in a bid to both self-sacrifice and renew the flailing state the country had been left in under the succession crisis and disputes created by her father and some men in the time of her youth to lead her to needing to be a pure, chaste, virgin Queen outwardly, whilst her inwards world was one of books, learning, poetry, mythology, favourites, ladies in waiting, games, warfare, state policy and day to day theatricals.
Lady Elizabeth 1550
Elizabeth here has a simple Bonnet style and Flemish lace detail. Her brooch is of acorns from the English oak and other perhaps meadow flowers. It is thought Leevina Treelinc made this particular miniature of Elizabeth as part of the royal court.
Clopton Portrait 1558
Key portrait 1559
There is an interesting addition of these Black Hood and Bonnet type of roles wherein Elizabeth is depicted in her childhood garb, but with a series of wider courtyards behind her. Given it was painted a year after her accession to the throne, albeit in a very time, it is most likely by Treelinc or another Flemish artist, as the scene is very in keeping with the Holbein style popular in the court of the Rake.
In her hand, she holds a seal or keys?, the official notice of the fact that she is now the Queen. This a particularly bittersweet moment though, as she balances the halls of power, our courtyards with the exceptionally deep black mourning garments she wears in many portraits until the 1560s. This was a grieving figure who now had to balance the decisions others had made before her lifetime and also had been thrown to the wolves in having to do this whilst been in line for the throne. There is a fascinating fact in that she is facing to the open courtyard and corridors outside, whilst the opposite seating with footstool is positioned on the opposite side. The chair, perhaps the throne, lies ignored. It seems it is secure.
What the footstool implicates however is that instead the future is somewhat unknown and seems to be a little out of reach, religion may be the primary usage for this footstool, but the patterns are noticeably the same material, a particularly worrying feature when considering the nature of Anne Boleyns death on a chopping block only too recently and all whilst a pious individual in terms of the instability many subjects and Phillip II posed at this time to a grieving daughter and new monarch.
After this time, this purity of image was perhaps as a coping mechanism maintained by Elizabeth in her portraiture. It is thought she may have requested this matter in the way Hilliard was said to reduce the amount of ornament, falsity and chiaroscuro included in portraits of her through 1560 to 1580 for example. This was held to be such the case that in a Proclamation from 1563 (1563 memorandum), there was a great discussion of Elizabeth's being depicted in 'blacke with a hoode and cornet', a style which held the wearer to be a pious Christian women, as found in the portrait miniature of her be Levina Teerlinc from 1550 for use in a private capacity.. something which by this time with Elizabeths ascendance to the throne and thus increased need for legitimacy to shoulder the Tudor dynasty as only the second female ruler in the Kingdom of England to do so, was an unbefitting image of the Elizabethan queen, instead more suitable for a Tudor princess.
Hilliard was introduced around this timeframe as the apprentice to Elizabeth's jeweller, Robert Brandon, showcasing that there was a general feeling by Elizabeth already at this time of the importance of having creatives around her and encouraging their work. Elizabeth in this way gave money to Protestant and British creative, such as Hilliard, Brandon and Treelinc during these times to make miniatures, manuscripts, bibles, jewelry, portraits and paintings. She was in this way responsible for some of the overall milieu of the art world in the wake of Shakespeare, goldscraft, embroidery, tapestries and other artforms which sprang up and flourished during her reign.
Coins
During this time, Elizabeth was first minted for coins. As this is a formal head and front shot, this was meant to convey specific ideas as now about order and rigour.
Hampden portrait 1560
Thus the Hampden portrait was introduced into the fray by the English court painter, George Gower. Here she is depicted in the work as an upright person in colour. She is depicted as wearing the Red rose of the House of Lancaster and a gillyflower. The Rose sits atop a chair, commentating on her link to the royal lineage as a viably legitimate candidate in a time after 2 centuries of instability and random candidates from the leading Platagenet and other branch families of the English royal family. She is firmly stating that the House of Lancaster is where she does her allegiances and heritage towards, rather than perhaps the incredible instability the House of York had held during that century. The Gillyflower may be a reference either to Shakespeare, or to peppercorn rents, which may have indicated to a select few the actual budget allocation a young queen was intending to expend. This was a direct fiscal reaction to her father's lavish expenditures, such as those rakish matters of state as the Agincourt battle of the Field of the Cloth of Gold of 1520, where Henry VIII had a habit of overspending on. In turn however in the use of the Gillyflower, the implied message back from the Queen's barter was that of 'Socage shall be applied', ie, lords may have their lavish spending and the Queen hers on occassion to please the matter of appeasing the general populace and pleasing the aristocratic court, but in return Socage (pledging allegiance to a monarch whose land a feudal lord resided on) must applied in return, as had applied in the time of Edward VI under his Quia Emptores (1290) which dictated that English land cannot be given away willy nilly without the authorisation of proper authorities. In other words, I will be the head of your messy realm, but you will serve absolute allegiance to my authority or else. This was a regular message with implied undertones to a select number of aristocratic elites who may have been planning subterfuge or treasonous activities involving the usage of English land and coffers to do so.
The incredibly expensive carpet she stands atop which may have indicated her trade allegiances at the time as she began the initation in the 1570s (letters travel by boat then) towards the Anglo-Moroccan alliance of her loyalties and interests as a new monarch. Behind her is what appears to be either a tapestry or some kind of collection of fruit, most of which was mostly a brag about how much money and mostly connections she had to be able to afford such luxuries as fresh fruits, mostly as many of these seeds came from places like the New World or the earth of Elizabeth's many great estates. This is mostly signified by what appears to be some kind of tool or anchor (?) in the bottom right which seems to have be related to these fruit varieties most likely. This also makes reference to the peppercorn rents, as peppercorn was used as a bartering system during this time due to frequent famines, but was also an exotic luxury good deemed at the time more valuable than gold as a spice of the East Indies. Thus these items were traded for feudal rights to plough and own land to the crown and other feudal headmen systems.
All in all the Hampden portrait gives the idea that this a general portrait of a new stable queen. The significance of this is that most of the issue surrounding Elizabeth at this time were instability from other family members trying to take the throne. Albeit whilst her 'gloves are off', meaning she will wage war for her throne through her claim in the other hand, she is sitting for a generally human portrait in comparison to later portraiture claimature. This was a theme which was often revisited in the gloves, and which would start a long glove craze in the successive courts of James VI of Scotland in a bid to be even a tenth of the human being Elizabeth was whilst James burnt witches and screwed everything except his wife. In this way for Elizabeth, gloves were a sign of favour which came with the territory of kissing the hand so to speak. She thought long fingers, her own in other words, were a sign of elegance and royalty.[4]
Elizabeth and the Ambassadors 1560
Elizabeth is depicted in a miniature by Leevina Treelinc here. The event in question is the end of the Auld Alliance between Scotland and France and being replaced by a new one with England in return for the ending of the bombardment of the Scottish town of Leith. French, Scottish and English diplomats would have been present and are shown accessing to Elizabeth in a sign of the times when this was still an unstable period regarding the acclimation of England to the Protestant and Catholic split left by the rake.
Elizabethan Maundy 1560
A Treelinc miniature depicting Elizabeth in a religious Maundy ceremony.
Grispsholm Portrait 1563
A particularly somber portrait moving on from the stages of deep mourning but which seems to be by an English hand. Intriguingly the overall impression is somewhat masculine coded, and may have been meant to imply that of Arthurian legends and her brothers image at the time. The closer details however reveal an early rebellious Elizabeth, pious and studious. The hair for example is tied in a particularly Hellenic finish, forming the hairstyle underneath a hat for the better part of the hidden image. Her lower sleeves are heavily embroidered in beadwork and for all this is at first glance a particularly chaste image, the portrait plays on ideas of hidden studiousness and roles of the new monarch as head of a newly formed Anglican church.
Anne's red image, also perhaps a nod the Tudor Roses is on play here, whilst in keeping with the Hood and Bonnet pious models, this portrait seemingly positions Elizabeth as the righteous daughter of Anne, a pious model of Christian chastity and purity whilst claiming legitimacy through the Tudor bloodline and the focus on religious themes.
Sea dogs
An interesting anecdote change is that Elizabeth at some point between these portraits Elizabeth began referring to her sailors as 'Sea-dogs'. She adopted this from an earlier phrase and used it to refer to her own version of this previously negative connotation of the word. Before 1550, these were illegal operations in which English merchants raided Spanish ships in Ye Olde New Worlde in order to gain their fortunes at sea. Eventually this activity came to the attention of those in charge of both England and Spain, resulting in a profit loss for Spain, and a reputation loss for England.
These sea-dogs became a thorn in the side of the British parliament who most likely would rather they were not going around doing illegal things under British flags. Elizabeth saw the optics of this after the slave trader John Hawkins brought back absolute fortunes after 1565 and began referring to the merchants conducting these raids as 'privateers'. In popular Anglophone lore, they are nowadays pirates.
Elizabeth's court around this time began adopting her aesthetics and decisions wholesale, and this is seen in for example Bess of Hardwicks surviving masterpiece the Sea-dog table in Hardwick House, finished in 1570, most likely by London carpenters under the guidance of French architectural firms. See Bess of Hardwicks portraits for an idea of what a non-royal version of Elizabeth would have looked like if you would like further reference material for the ideas of what Tudor portraiture in the Elizabethan age was supposed to resemble.
Elizabeth I and the Three Goddesses 1569
Here Elizabeth begins to use portraiture as part of state crafting and nation building through her knowledge of classical mythology. The portrait here involves the usage of the story of the Judgement of Paris.
"Eris, the goddess of discord, was not invited to the wedding of Peleus and Thetis. In revenge, she brought a golden apple, inscribed, "To the fairest one," which she threw into the wedding. Three guests, Hera, Athena and Aphrodite, after some disputation, agreed to have Paris of Troy choose the fairest one. Paris chose Aphrodite, she having bribed him with the most beautiful mortal woman in the world, Helen of Sparta, wife of Menelaus. Consequently, Paris carried Helen off to Troy, and the Greeks invaded Troy for Helen's return. Eris' Apple of Discord was thus the instrumental casus belli (or her not being invited to the wedding in the first place) of the Trojan War."
Instead of Paris, a figure whom Elizabeth deliberately depicts herself as thereby inducing the stature and posturing Paris is meant to invoke in a reader, as she would have seen and done so herself.
In the portraiture, she is the one now commanding the 3 goddesses Juno, Venus and Pallas-Minerva who abide by her command at the bottom of a step. This may have started as a sort of self insert fanfiction, however the end result is again, that of states craft. The matter at hand is that of the impending crisis that the Trojan wars depict the fall of Troy, whereas it is said that the portraiture herself is inversed. This was the rather unsubtle matter of saying 'I am in charge, and I will be stable'. The context here is more important the actual Queen staffage itself. The Queen here is shadowed by her predecessor, the first Queen of the realm, Mary I, also known as Bloody Mary for her particularly aggressive and cruel treatment of many of her 'subjects' during her rule. Elizabeth instead beguiles the specter by demanding the respect of her sex given that the previous Catholic monarch had fumbled the bag, earning her successive moniker.
IVNO POTENS SCEPTRIS ET MENTIS ACVMINE PALLAS / ET ROSEO VENERIS FVLGET IN ORE DECVS / ADFVIT ELIZABETH IVNO PERCVLSA REFVGIT OBSVPVIT PALLAS ERVBVITQ VENVS'. Translated as: 'Pallas was keen of brain, Juno was queen of might, / The rosy face of Venus was in beauty shining bright, / Elizabeth then came, And, overwhelmed, Queen Juno took flight: / Pallas was silenced: Venus blushed for shame'.[4]
Indeed the world in this painting is said to be the real world, and the world on the right pure fantasy, with the royal courts insignia part of the everyday Gloriana, and the right the land of fantasy envisaged by the flight of the goddess Venus in her chariot of swans.[4]
1570
In 1570, the pope excommunicated Elizabeth from, something, most likely 'Christendom' because Catholic mediocrity.[7] In reality it is more likely that Phillip II was pulling strings to get his heir on Mary I's side, Mary of Scots, to rule the kingdom of England through a union of the Isles claim.[7]
After 1570, the queens portraiture became something the English parliaments wished to display a sense of devotion and veneration from her subjects. These were meant to replace the Catholic imagery that had come before it, of Catholic saints, of the Madonna, of the miraculous Virgin birth of Jesus. Each of the prior lose strands of these public yarns about the Queens identity were spun into a tapestry which made up her new place as the head of her fathers Rake decisions. She literally took on the mantle of making the Tudor dynasty work, work Henry had been too busy shagging rosbif to do. For example her day of accession became Accession day (tilts), and just as Queen Elizabeth II started doing her TV appearances, these become fodder for the public imagination of what an 'English queen' got up to in England.
The Family of Henry VIII: An Allegory of the Tudor Succession 1572
This is basically a joke from Elizabeth to Francis Walshingham, Elizabeth's master spy.[3] Inside this allegorical satire, the modicum of decency shown in handing the legitimacy to the English throne is shown in the way Henry VIII directs his line of descent through the hand of her kid brother to herself shown in the age in which she was at the time the painting was commissioned by Elizabeth. This was a commentary on stability.
The carpet under which all of these individuals are stood represents the Anglican Church, which was ruled after Henry VIII by only Protestants and Catholics on occasion. Those on the carpet are said to be in Elizabeth's worldview, the rightful heirs by blood to this matter at the time. The Catholic opposition however, displayed on the right is the Spanish ruler Phillip II who had married Mary I who had died 20 years previously. Privately, this was a matter of ridiculing the Catholic supposition to the throne as the Pope was trying to at that very moment excommunicate Elizabeth from the religion. At this time, the fracture of England to Protestantism and Lutheranism, can be seen as whole when it was a matter of personal excommunication of the English queen who had so managed to rule without the problems of Mary. It was in this manner, that Elizabeth was communicating to her medieval and by then state craft image that she was the rightful ruler and had earned her spot in the geo-social-politics of medieval European court drama that established her right to rule.
Behind Philip is Mars, the God of War, implying strife caused by Philip II's rule, at this time in England and later down the line by invoking old tensions in the future. Behind Elizabeth however are the goddesses of Peace and Plenty, a clearcut message to the generals and leaders of Elizabeth mercenaries and armies that at the helm, she would lead England for Englands sake rather than as a personal moneypot which Philip used his lands, titles and possession for, much as occurred with the Philippines in later years, and the legend of the Black death arose around the Old and New World in raised heckle against.[3]
Indeed around the context is where Elizabeth situates herself, placing herself as specifically, in the inscription beneath it all, as 'last of all a Vyrgin Queen to England’s joy we see, Successyvely to hold the right and virtues of the three'.[3] This was most likely created to bolster the Treaty of Blois (1572) which was made to build upon an alliance of England-France versus Spain v Netherlands dynamic in a bid to make the Protestant nations stronger in continental Europe. Her master spy at the time, was the ambassador to France, so this was a cheeky way of saying, 'we shall overcome all odds Philip raises to us' as it was also implied that Philip at the time was in control of the Pope, meaning her excommunication was a personal attack from her brother-in-law who was trying to discredit her legitimacy on the basis now, not of her sex as her father had done, but on the basis of her religion, and in trying to excommunicate her and claiming she was a simply heretyck who would need to be burned at the stake to quell the anger of his omnipotent god. Philip was not a nice person. To top this off, the portrait was made by an exiled Protestant from the Spanish Netherlands.
Hilliard Miniatures
Some of the royal portrait miniatures at this time turned to Hilliard as there was some criticism of not enough royal patronage being spent on British designers and craftspeople, given that Holbein and Treelinc both came from the continent and other designers and craftspeople were often overlooked by more established craftspeople from areas such as Flanders, Antwerp and other established book publishing centres maintained by monks and other writers and manuscript illuminators. Some notable inclusions include with musical instruments.
Biblical editions 1572
The Biblical frontispiece of the Bibles used the by then standard woodcut or illustrative portraiture of Elizabeth to show the link between Henry's rakery, and Elizabeth's Virginity in a way, but both as head of the church of England as Anglican head, a supposedly pious position which instead was started in the most rakish manner possible given that Henry was going through women like disposable napkins at the time.
Elizabeth's portraits are generally a formalised version of the portcullis, Tudor rose, sceptre, orb and other cosmographically related implements of the Monarchs state jewels and the crown jewels which in those times literally symbolised the idea of holding the earth and the link to heaven in the sceptre and orb. Many female personifications were also present in the usual meeting juncture of ruby text and other blank spaces.
Darnley portrait 1575
The Darnley portrait was an official propaganda piece which emerged as a work to allow other artists to retain the state propaganda men around Elizabeth demanded to allow their own assumptions and expectations to be met about 'female youth' and therefore being 'fit to rule'. Interestingly recent analysis reveals this pale complexion was also due to pigment deterioration due to using a more susceptible red lake pigment.[7]
Elizabeth's age was a concern in her judgement as she grew older, and whilst to us this may seem ridiculous given her father's mediocrity as a king, but women are often held to a double standard and expected to be both perfect and more. So in this case we end up with the Darnely portrait, as being fit to rule and having experience was apparently not enough for the 'I have a small one' crowd, no they must instead assert their mediocrity to have their fragile ego's stroked enough to go away.
The Darnley portrait was copied after this period to keep the 'Youth' of a 'Virgin' Queen alive in the public eye. The first almost use of public photoshop and censorship in a way that older women may feel in the public eye today, or even younger women in the way many nowadays seeks medical intervention in their 20's through 'baby botox' and 'age prevention' treatments. These are of course not things naturally brought up by all genders, men of course famously do not historically have these matters brought to their attention in the same way, however due to popular mediocrity of the time and today, become social norms which must be observed to remain popular and liked by the general populace and those in authority positions.
The Darnley portrait was eventually disused by the 1590s depending on Elizabeth's mood. There is interesting detail in the work revealed by the Polish doublet, which was men's clothing at the time. It gives an idea of what Elizabeth was not just saying, but was actively already doing in taking on the opposite sex entirely.[8] In a small pendant there also lies: " Minerva (the goddess of wisdom) is depicted at the top, Jupiter (ruler of the gods) of at the base and Venus (goddess of love), Cupid and Mars (gods of love and war) at the sides. Most such jewels were gifts from courtiers or important visitors and would have been seen to reflect the Queen’s classical learning." In these small ways, these details levelled that the copy and paste Elizabeth portrait was an Elizabeth version of 'screw you im too busy to care, look at my work'.[8]
Pelican and Phoenix 1576
During this time, Hilliard began the Pelican and Phoenix portraits. These were both made from the same wood and complemented one another in the way that these images symbolised the birth of the stable England Elizabeth had promised. At the cost of which was to become apparent later on, but the domestic economy of England by that point was more stable under her reign than it had been during the previous tumultuous reigns and wars of the previous rulers of the kingdom of England. Each of the portraits retain their titles from the jewelry worn by the Queen.
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The pelican in her piety is a symbol of the medieval period. It was said that the pelican would feed its young with blood from it's own body to nurture the young. This gave the image of a self sacrificing being fostering the talent and future of its young over itself. The pelican pendant has it s wing outstretched and its beak in its breast, given the image of a self-effacing and humble monarch as derived in the lore of the time, an image that Elizabeth was fond of. In this way, it was said that Elizabeth sacrificed some creature comforts as well as her own blood sweat and tears for England.
Large pearls symbolising purity and Artemis, the god of the Moon, are also shown everywhere. Continuing the purity theme, 2 cherries adorned the Queens earlobes, an untouched Virgin reference. Fringing above her head implies the Queendom and the usual Tudor rose runs amock. In this particular portrait, a Flower of Lis gives the impression of her claim to the kingdom of France. Her gown also displays blackwork, a particular embroidery embellishment which showcased her local homegrown artefacts, replete in roses.
The Phoenix portrait is a mirror image copy of the Pelican, symbolising an animal which is rising from the ashes to be reborn anew. It should not be understated that this was most likely the idea of Elizabeth distinguishing her right to rule given mediocrity and other biases which allowed the double standard of men creating things and then cocking them up, whilst not allowing women the same ability, time nor place to do the same. This double portrait by Hilliard implied that here was a grandeur for the double here and is what the author of this blogpost takes to imply in the aftermath of state craft that Elizabeth had come to realize in private, but not to take up in public as it would have ruined her claim to the throne and ability to rule independently and alone as an older woman in particular.
The Phoenix represented for Elizabeth the rebirth of her image and use in society and for the realm. Unlike the Pelican, it was not a humble self-sacrificing emblem, but rather a matter of state craft once again, in that rejection of all that came before her to try something new so as to be able to create the overall immersion of a new England and new type of role model. By this point as quasi-absolute monarch, she decided what direction her fashion, her governments, her realm in other words would go. Slaving, the Protestant and Catholic wars and all of the succession disputes she had to mop up after her father was done were things with which the Phoenix was required as a symbol for. The Pelican on the other hand was invoked as a matter of taking the overall burden of the world into which she had newly birthed. She was as she once said not married to a single man, as she was 'already bound unto a husband which is the Kingdom of England'.[5] Instead Elizabeth used her messed up situation as Virgin Queen to benevolently for its populace move England towards a national state of independence. Her marriage, her womb, her bedchamber were a matter of state. As such, she would never marry foreign princes or even her own native lover. This would have drawn England into war and other men's realpolitik afterall, as Mary I had been done so to under her marriage with Philip II.[6]
Plimpton Sieve Portrait 1579
These portraits are a series of Darnley era portraits which copied the general face of the Darnley with a series of prop changes, notably Sieves. A number including the Plimpton, give the idea of Elizabeth as one of the Vestal Virgins Tuccia, another classical allusion most likely prompted by Elizabeth to give the idea of Virginity (independence here) and a vast literary knowledge (intelligence). This is interesting considering these are almost considered to be part of state portraiture, particularly after the intervention of Dee and some other state ministers in Elizabeth's affairs with the encroaching demands of Philip II. It gives us the idea of what was going through Elizabeth's own mind at the time to be promoting learning and independent women in positions of authority that this was a series of images she allowed to be created around her legacy and for posterity.
There are 3 inscriptions present ; 1) "TVTTO VEDO & MOLTO MANCHA" at upper left, on two lines, with the last two letters joined; Italian for "I see everything and much is lacking." 2) "E R" at upper right, with a gap between the letters; abbreviation for the Latin "Elizabeth Regina" meaning "Elizabeth the Queen." 3) "STANCHO RIPOSO & RIPOSATO AFFANO 1579" near the upper right, on three lines, with the second and third letters superimposed to form one character; a line from Petrarch's Trionfo D'Amore, IV, 1.145, followed by the year the painting was executed; Italian for "Weary, I have rested, and having rested, am breathless."
Either way, this was to give the impression of a learned Empress who ruled her domains via the seas. We can see this in the story Tuccia, who was said to have carried a sieve without spilling a single drop, obviously for mere mortals outside of fiction unless rigged, an impossible feat. This act proved Tuccia's virginity was virgin, all the way from the Tiber of Rome to the Temple of Vesta. Tuccia was familiar to Tudor readers in particular, as it was widely read by the literate population as part of Petrarchs Triumph of Chastity (1352-1374).
Welbeck Portrait 1580
A Flemish style painting which utilises the olive branch. Most likely a portrait destined for the Diplomatic exchange.
Gloriana
With the imposition of Gloriana in full swing, it became expected for those who curried favour to wear an image of the Queen's likeness. Usually in the form of a brooch (see the Drake or the Armada jewel). Interestingly these were worn often not around the chest as we would think but almost over the groin.
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This period was a moment of complete upheaval. Portraits from the time first utilised Catholic learning as fun and cool, studious people stuff like serpents being cool and wise.[8] Then everything changed when Phillip 2 attacked, and then serpents were Satan and they got rid of that.[8] It is around this time though that it became fashionable for peasants to have portraits of Elizabeth.[8] By the time the Armada arrived, these had become the cult of Gloriana, with all of the long gallery's, poetry and popular plays of the day (Shakespeare) replete with reference and inference to the ongoings of Elizabethan court creativity. These resulted in the works after 1580 with the replete ongoings of Elizabeth's self-referenced aesthetical posterity and artisanal legacy in the works of her court painters.
Many of these different objects, portraiture wise, included things such as brooches, jewellry and paintings. The Armada brooch/Drake Pendant and lockets, rings and 'picture boxes' worn by the queen were a triumph in gold and self. Each of these different objects referenced the Darnley portraits and were carefully curated public propaganda images to make sure that royal courtiers knew who and where their allegiances lay in a time where Catholicism and Protestantism was a heavy topic which carried the weight of blood and lineage ending disputes. Wearing the Armada brooch in other words was what some may term the modern equivalent of walking around with a North Korean leaders face on a brooch lapel. It signified tight control of a country that was at times highly stable and other times highly unstable, yet which was held together somehow by the tight purse strings of its slightly mad leader, many of whom from the outside saw its cult of leadership as at times positive and others times wholly negative, dependent upon who was asking and who was telling in the religious sense.
This ode to Gloriana was the presumptive creative energy which formed the artisanal legacy and posterity Elizabeth left behind her. It is everything from Titania in a Midsummers nights dream down to the Dinner Party by Judy Chicago, who lives in a country which has a parcel of land bigger than the UK named after her in her namesake. It was the circular artisitical narrative Elizabeth spun around herself to keep her friends close, and her enemies closer. This was the cult of Gloriana, and the purposes it served and would serve for herself and for England years down the line after her own passing would send the Tudor lineage into obsoleteness, ending the royal court's native born rulers and prompting a succession crisis after her own death, arguably not only exacerbated but created by her own father's greed 50 years before.
Quentin Sieve portrait 1583
In this Tuccia throwback, there is a prominent Column and Globe. The Column is a reference to the splitting of Greek mountains by Hercules in the Pillars of Hercules mythology. The Globe is a reference to the wider Empire that Dee was referring to in the regulations extended to the Sea-dogs.
The Pillars in this Sieve portrait refer to the Dido and Aeneas story. Dido was said to be a direct descendant of Brutus of Troy by Dee, so this was a reference to again the heritage right to rule for Elizabeth. As a symbol of empire, it was perhaps a reference also to totem poles in Ye Newe Worlde. But I cant prove that, Im just pointing it out. Either way, Aeneas was rejected by Dido, and it is this symbol which was said to be what was being alluded to when Elizabeth claimed heritage through such a tale, that in rejecting marriage, the Gloriana cult proclaimed this to be her divine destiny and that fate would have her marry England and rule over her sea Empire instead. Just as Dido did to Aeneas in rejecting Aeneas. This is especially the case considering a male minister may have commissioned the work in rejection of marriage match to Elizabeth, which by this time under the cult of Gloriana was not a sign of respect from one monarch to the next, but an inversion of England's new gynecological monarchy which instead operated as an insult to the fitness of the English monarch instead.
We can pretty tell this is the case, because Elizabeth stands as a paragon of calm, dominating the space. This is in contrast to the background behind her, where a number of male courtiers or perhaps allegorically suitors are all romping and raving behind her in a very rakish manner, befitting of the men in Gloriana's wake. The Feminine at this time becomes the pivot of the axis around which these men's lives and stories are told, not the other way around as it would have been dictated to Elizabeth in her earlier years and youth in the court of her rakish father.
Dido was the Greek mythological founder of the Phoenician city of Carthage who is said to have been an enterprising woman and leader. Upon finding out the deception caused by her brutish brother Pygmalion in the death of her husband she flees. After this matter, she founds Carthage and encourages it to prosper. During this time, Aeneas comes upon her and tells of the Trojan war. During this time, she falls in love (according to Virgil) and takes Aeneas into the country as a lord. The virgil gods decided to have Mr.Big-Bologne-Aeneas travelling around the world in the meantime and so poor Aeneas must leave. Dido in the original myths doesnt have an Aeneas, but instead, in Virgil version, she does, so becuase he has been commanded by Mercury to go to the Trojan wars, and do boy things? She decides she cant live without him and must now set herself on fire and fall on a sword, and do so whilst she is surrounded by her one night stands worldly possessions and dies. But in the Elizabethan reading, she rejects Aeneas and so this is empowering, because this is the 1500s and women in charge is rarer than a Japanese person using a system that isn't paper based.
Emmanuel College charter 1584
Given his position as royal limner Hilliard was chosen to create the new College Charter for the Emmanuel College in 1584. This was an older tradition held-over from the time of Henry VIII when his court offered illuminated manuscript gilders, or limners, the opportunity to work for the court as the official court appointed limner. Given the rarity of these materials, particularly paper, given most legal documents were written on a variety of materials including vellum (goats hide), being able to work as a limner with such rare materials was a sign that this was a luxury appointment for those with access to these rare materials and enough money and connections to be able to carry these into the country safely from halfway across the world in one piece in the first place. Rather like the idea of working for the people who buy Hermes saddle horses today or original LV trunks when they were actually work something 100 years ago.
As usual, the College charter depicts female mythic figures alongside Elizabeth in legal documents when at the time, she was still technically a religious outlaw and somewhat sideshow attraction to men as a ruler. Thus this was in a way an Elizabethan dig at the idiots who still believed that as a women, she could not read, and as a leader, at the way the men; in charge of those men; thought she wasn't fit for office based on being in receipt of a womb as the gender binaries went back then, that she was not only fit to rule, but had had this written down and limnered by men paid more than those men to rub it in their faces.
From an aesthetic perspective, this is a rather frugal Elizabethan portrait as it makes the usual references to wealth, Tudor embroidery, lineage, heritage in craft, mythological references and artistical homage to the popular courts of the day (persian or perhaps roman grotesques in this case) AND swiftly moves into the legal paratext that is the fact that this is a school charter, and that there is a woman there, and yes that is a woman, and no Gilliard we will not be deposing her, and yes its a school charter, radical. A woman in charge, how very radical that was.
Ermine Portrait 1585
The Ermine portrait is when the statecraft in Elizabethan portraiture becomes overtly Mars war-like exertions and iconographically positive depictions of the Empire of England as it was at the time. That is a shift away from Protestant and Lutheran doctrines of remaining ambivalent towards nation craft, and moving towards the prior predominantly Catholic interpretation of Dum Diversas (While different) to Tordesillas interpretations of 'international law' texts which divided the world into the spheres of influence of the nations predominantly given control and domination in those areas. Prior to 1580, this was a mostly Catholic predilection, given that the homeplace of Lutheranism was under Spanish occupation from 1556-1712 and that England entered into the New World under pretensions ranging from Dee's empirical predictions and John Hawkins slaving expeditions c.1550-1565, to Raleigh's expeditionary zest for riches and gold in 1584 which lead to Elizabeth giving him charters to explore the 'New World' of the 'Americas' as it was christened by European powers.
In the middle of all this, comically there is a small olive branch in her hand, which symbolises peace as in the story of the biblical Noah's Ark where a dove or white bird flies from the ark to retrieve an olive branch, which returned showing that the troubles before the flood had gone and peace had arrived for Noah's earth. However by the time of the Ermine portrait, Empire was on Elizabethan lips. The Ermine portrait in particular emphasis Elizabeth's mastery of the seas, particularly her 'sea-dogs', or pirates/slave traders in the Caribbean as we know them today. It is most likely that this Empire building exercise was a result of John Dee (1527-1609), an Anglo-Welshman much like the Tudors themselves who desired a bigger slice of the colonial European pie the Continental populations had sliced the world into for themselves.[7]
Dee's General and Rare Memorials Pertayning to the Perfect Arte of Navigation (1577) was the first to promote the assertion of the British navy as the Empirical Might of the British Empire in its proto-era. It also espoused the wonders of alchemy, astronomy, talking angels, Brutus of Troy and Elizabeth's right to the throne through her links to King Arthur of the Arthurian Legend variety, so we can most likely take it as rambles from a man in the 16th century as well. Dee in Elizabeth's court was primarily a star and occult man afterall. Monmouths manuscripts during this time were taken as wholly true, given the fact that archaelogy was still in its infancy in Ye Olde Worlde. A lovely 'the English founded Rome' fanfiction, but otherwise not the most accurate text to date.
It was said of Elizabeth though, that by ushering in the era of 'New Arthurianism' in combining the Houses of the Roses, that Elizabeth has ushered in a new era of 'Pax' (Peace) and had therefore founded the new Pax Britannia or in other words British Empire. Either way, this work prompted the idea that the Elizabethan age had become a new Golden Age, certainly for England it was a Cultural Golden Age and saw a blossoming in the language, diversity, reach, knowledge, seeds, material cultures, linguistical variety and cosmopolitan nature of especially cities with London doubling to 200,000 people and the English population going from 2.8 million to 3.75 million by the time Elizabeth had started and finished her reign
Drewe Portrait 1585
A particularly Darnley nothing portrait with rubies and gold sleeves.
In 1588, Phillip II through his Mary of Scots backfired fiasco claim declared war on England in 1588.[7] Otherwise known as the invasion of the Spanish Armada of 1588, and numerous other failed 'New World' ventures and escapades.
Queen Elizabeth I Feeds the Dutch Cow 1586
This satirical painting depicts a cow which represents the Dutch provinces. King Philip II of Spain is vainly trying to ride the cow, drawing blood with his spurs. Queen Elizabeth is feeding it while William of Orange holds it steady by the horns. The cow is defecating on the Duke of Anjou, who is holding its tail.
The picture was painted in the period following the visit of François, Duke of Anjou (brother of King Henry III of France) to Queen Elizabeth's court in 1581–82 to discuss his marriage proposal and his military support for the Anglo-Dutch alliance against the Spanish. Anjou's subsequent mission to the Netherlands met with disaster when his army was massacred by the citizens of Antwerp in early 1583. William of Orange was assassinated the following year. Elizabeth had found the French one mildly attractive for a time it was said.
Armada portrait 1588
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There is a massive amount of pomp and circumstance going on in the Armada portrait, but it is the most solid and widely known image of the cult of Gloriana in Elizabeth's portraiture. It is worth stating that many copies of this painting existed, because Elizabeth's men often wanted copies made for themselves to brag about their ruler, as to how popular her stance at the time on the 16th century state of warcraft and defense of the realm was, at a time where only men were socially accepted to die on the end of a skewer.
The portraiture style was also very tied to the original sense of the roles of the Flemish limner and illuminated manuscript styles of space and time, unlike the trend to be exacting in Catholic Renaissance art. The disappearing point of the general furniture is very abstracted, whilst the depiction of the map of North America is incredibly strange to us and even contemporary works of accurate natures, but followed British traditions of exaggeration in maps to show ideas and icons rather than cartographical supremacy first and foremost. English school works were basically dreadful, and they knew it, but they didn't care because they had their pride and that was enough for them.
Here the pearls are also utilised as part of the work regarding chastity, wealth and the seas. These are all allegories of Elizabeth as a Virgin, an Empress, Regnant and the hunter, Diana, in the number of circles apparently in the image which was an allusion to the moon. The pearl in front of her Vagina was a virginal guardian, chaste, pious and pure as a solid white pearl, with hints of Moon goddess hunting you through. There may also something to the claim of mermaids in the chairs design, but this is to luring Spanish ships into the Protestant Wind most likely and not to do with tempting Spanish sailors into her Parliamentary enfolds. It may perhaps relate to one of the Marys who was meant to replace Elizabeth as well in relation to her own female co-monarchs Catholic leanings, a prominent map known s the Queen Mary Atlas for example plays into all of these markings as Elizabeth inherited what was to be at the time Phillip 2's map from Mary I, but instead Elizabeth got and scribbled out Phillips name because he was Catholic and she didnt like that, so she scribbled him out. That, but mermaid chair.
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The globe the queens gloves hands rest upon for example, have an explicit reference to Virginia, the land named in her honour by the British expeditionary forces to Ye Newe Worlde (you may have guessed by now, this is a joke because people were already living in this Newe Worlde of Turtle Island).
The columns behind the queen are particularly referential to the Pillars of Hercules once again, but these are also referencing the imperial insignia of the Holy Roman Empire (spiritual successor of the Catholic claim to being the Roman Empire) court insignia of the father of Phillip II. Their distance apart references the distance between the Atlantic Ocean's sides of North America and Western Europe. The Pillars of Hercules is a Greek myth that whilst on their way to see the Morning and Evening Nymphs Hercules had to cross over Atlas, the guy who used to hold up the earth on his back and then became a dusty mountain. It was still a really big mountain, he split it in two. This section of land is basically the connecting land bridge between Africa and Europe and why the Greeks were like 'why arent we connected to Egypt by land, but its water?' the story. Hercules smashes Atlas, the Mediterranean was born. The strait of Gibraltar and another mountain was leftover, because messy messy boy. These points marked the end of the Greek World, and in going beyond it, Elizabeth was saying both, we have all of the known world and the New World in our grasps and look how big my brain and my empire is.
The two windows reveal the going and coming of the Spanish Armada into the oncoming 'Protestant winds' of the English harbour. In turning towards the light and calm it is said that this is the Elizabethan course, towards a calm, stable and prosperous future for the English nation.
Parliament Robes 1590
A fabulously unprecedented set of imagery which drew upon the Gloriana cult for its bulk meanings, mostly a smaller crown than the afterwards insanity in the crown jewels. A large, most likely Flemish ruff is worn and a red velvet gown with ostrich feathers, a symbol of the Tudors acquisition of the Prince of Wales title is present. Large ermine robes finish the work and the rest is mostly familiar.
By the 1590s, these portraits became stuck in time from the Darnley era and created an emerging age of eternal youth and beauty. An engagement in public relations to the greater political and global British empire that had begun proper under the Elizabethan and Tudor banner.
In reality, the actual situation in the court was much stickier. There seems to have been a rekindling of passions with the court favourite, Dudley, Earl of Leicester in this time, as Elizabeth was known to have died with his letters in her arms at her deathbed a few years after this particular event. The event in question being the painting of a new portrait face by the Italian painter Federico Zuccari which never came to fruition and therefore remains a piquing mystery of 'what if', given the circumstances.
Zuccari was a well known painter to Dudley, who was supposedly meant to receive the painter at the London court. Given that as the pretext, these were the reasons Zuccari appeared in London, and most likely why his commissioner would have been Dudley as interesting, because Elizabeth as leader of state had responsibilities to choose British painters in a British style. At the time, Italian painters were all the rage shall we say, and it would have been highly meaningful to the connection that was once shared between Dudley and the Queen. Dudley was most likely playing a game which was a ruse to get in contact with the Queen again for one reason or another, thus that when he contacted Zuccari, he most likely knew that there would be no real push from the Queen to actually deviate from her Darnley state portraiture, as in this rather fudged time, this was basically; England: we like this one, Dudley elizabeths ex: darling, this was me once take me back?.
Given that the outcome of this was that there was no formal painting commissioned, we can safely say that is the same outcome as before and that there was no deviation from the Darnley portrait. But it was given that Elizabeth was in old age at the time and that this may have been a rekindling effort from Dudley, either to cheer Elizabeth up, or a reminder from someone else of her heritage. Either way, this ploy was the sort of thing her Pelican and Phoenix portraits symbolised, a recurring destruction of her heart and rebirth of it anew for the state she tied her fate to. Other portrait miniaturists included Isaac Oliver, but his portrayal was most likely deemed unflattering and too graphic for the popular media, and was dismissed in favour of Hilliards hand.
This became eventually the dual narratives of Astraea the rightful Virgin and Venus, the goddess of Love. Other iterations as Diana made a return, and her role as Cynthia in Sextus Propertius (48-50 CE) was also popular as prose poetry. Huntresses arrows for example as Diana/Cynthia/Artemis became popular way to note how Elizabeth by this time had shifted the gynecological narrative from that of women as the hunted to the hunter, given Diana's role as the patron saint of the hunt, a popular Tudor pastime which would have had its own meanings to those who saw it during a time where all food was processed by hand and exotic ingredients came at the cost of human lives. The nutmeg trade for example is the beginning of the Dutch overseas Empire in the time of the Spice trade and their subsequent wars.
Astraea was the Goddess of Justice and lived during a time when humanity was a pure race of beings in the Greek myth. After humanity becomes evil, she moves to the stars to get away from these impure influences and becomes the constellation Virgo.
John Bette portrait 1590
A painting by an English artist during Elizabeth's change period.
The Ditchley portrait 1592
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The Ditchley portrait is a sign of the Tudor extravagance English kings and queens of the medieval empirical era became accustomed to. This portrait was made in the sitting of one long visit to the house of Elizabeth's courtier Lee Ditchley. In the Tudor period right up until the time of the Regency, lavish parties were held at manor houses to receive the royals which were said to be able to bankrupt estate owners, who were said to 'spend a fortune' in one night on some occasions to meet the requirements of hosting royalty to appropriate court fashions.
Elizabeth here is literally standing on Oxfordshire, the Lords home county, with accompanying inscription and sonnet as was the court standard at the time given the propensity Elizabeth had for culture, the arts, giving philanthropic alms and particularly poetry. One of her earrings is an Armillary Sphere, a naval instrument used to measure objects in the sky, also known as an astrolabe which was used to charter directions for circumnavigation in a time where ship directions were made by using the stars as directions. There is a copy of this particular portrait in the Palazzo Pitti (c.1458), which was sent as a diplomatic gift, probably to spite Catherine d'Medici who had inferred that Elizabeth should marry a physical male earlier on in her reign, as a sign of saying 'I am in charge, not below, but above England' kind of message. The Palazzo was most likely a pet project affiliation of one of Catherine's many architectural admirers.
Bess of Hardwick 1592
Businesswomen such as Bess of Hardwick here is seen in the Black and White of Elizabeth, colours at the time which symbolised devotion to the English crown at court.
Woodcuts 1596
In this time period, many illustrations created by non-royal licensed individuals were created which upset Elizabeth and she had ordered to be removed from widespread circular print. It is most likely these were copies of the Oliver miniature. These seem to be on the ground of implying Elizabeth was not immortal however than ideas of youthful beauty purely. During this time, it is thought due to her lead exposure she became very gaunt and ill, losing a great number of teeth, hair and her health, such that it became bad luck to mention Elizabeths health in fear of invoking bad luck around her and prematurely bringing on death.
It was said at the time however even by the French, that she carried herself well and her composure was admirably central to a room. As such, 1596-1603 portraits were all made using Hilliards 'Mask of Youth' portraiture faces.
Hardwick Hall 1599
Otherwise known as the Mask of Youth portrait, a classically Gloriana portrait with a myriad of most likely colonial American plants and animals on the skirts. A series of jewels adorn the hair to resemble flowers such as the Tudor Rose heavily displayed in the throne adjacent with a religious set of imagery throughout the overall work.
Elizabeth's favourite motifs such as her long fingers and certain rings adorn her hands with her long gloves. She is existing as a person who is enjoying life, albeit within the strict beauty standards that exist for women of her age in the age in which she found herself.
The procession portrait 1600
A famous work in which it is believed Walter Raleigh started the trend of offering your coat for a lady in draping it over a puddle for Elizabeth to walk across.
Coronation portait 1600
Elizabeth usually posthumous coronation portraits use Hilliards mask face, and she is seen wearing a remodelled version of Mary I cloth of gold dress. Some jewels were added it seems since the original version.
The portrait famously echoes the portrait of Richard II. It reminds me of the royal perogrative of that reign, but in the feminine sense for England. A posthumous egalitarian reading of Richards neo-liberalism. Also notes the time of culture Richard emphasised. It also speak to the misadventures of Richard in leading to the war of the Roses in Shakespeares Richard II, whilst nodding to the end of this period of time in English history by Elizabeths sacrifices. She takes the bad and transforms it anew.
I dont know why the portrait was painted so late on, but perhaps it was to leave use the users of posterity guessing as to what the marriage to England Elizabeth gave, genuinely was to be.
Rainbow Portrait 1601-1603
Personally probably my favourite as it is the most unhinged out of pocket stuff you've seen in a while. The entire bodice is covered in Eyes and Ears which all symbolise the way her spy masters had a hold on the knowledge that was around England, literally 'I have eyes and ears everywhere'. Something very on the nose (badum-che) for Elizabeth's portraiture, but very Elizabeth all the same (thinking her succession portrait takes).
Elizabeth is also literally holding onto a rainbow apparently at Hatfield House. This is coming from the time of Nonsuch Palace afterall (unfortunately the rake). She seems to have been in a fancy dress outfit for a Masque, a court ceremony involving a dance and theatre performance given at court usually for the royals. She was frequently using common emblem book symbols which made the painting 'readable' as an artefact of literature in itself. These are the cloak with eyes, the serpent of wisdom and the armillary sphere. The serpent being a sort of pheonix symbol of rebirth into a longer afterlife. Her rainbow bearing "non sine sole iris" (no rainbow without the sun) being most likely a line from the inspiration for the work from the John Davies poem Hymns to Astraea.
She is dressed in linen, decorated with spring floral embroidery and a mantle draped over the shoulder. She is wearing a massive headdress which was incredibly ornate and was probably making a joke or point about being in the 'spring of her youth' with those particular choices. This is again another ode to the visitation of the Queen to Robert Cecils house. It seems it is when she at her happiest and most content. It was used at the time as a literal 'Shrine to Astraea' in the decoration for the visit.[7]
Purity to rule and Empirical Symbols
Globes
Armillary Sphere
Pillars
Crowns
Swords
Sieves
Flowers
Seeds
Maps
Boats
Phillip 2
Conclusion
1540
Henrys kid
1550
Mourning everything that moved and didnt.
1560
Screw you im in charge.
1570
Lol try to get rid of me Catherine, Phillip didnt even win.
1580
Moon symbolism was often in sway with Diana and Artemis, the Roman and Greek goddess of the Moon and the Hunt.
Allusions were often made to the moon and pearls for this very matter.
Virginity and Purity were also present in a great amount of the symbolism of the works, take for example the naming of Virginia.
1590
I like wine.
1600
I still like wine. Booze, Boys, and legacy.
For all we know a lot about the general usage of the symbols involved, much of the wider usage surrounding things such as the Floriography for example is mostly lost to us, as the Elizabethans would have 'read' their paintings. The wider context often is known, but closer readings of many different Italian and British texts with wider Classical readings would need to be compiled to have a clearer understanding of these specific instances.
Portraits
The Family of Henry VIII 1545
The Lady Elizabeth Tudor 1546
Lady Elizabeth 1550
Clopton Portrait 1558
Key Portrait 1559
Coins 1560
Hampton Portrait 1560
Elizabeth and the Ambassadors 1560
Elizabethan Maundy 1560
Grispsholm Portrait 1563
Elizabeth I and the Three Goddesses, 1569
Sea-dog Table 1570
The Family of Henry VIII: An Allegory of the Tudor Succession 1572
Miniature by Hilliard 1572
Biblical editions 1572
Darnley Portrait 1575
Phoenix Portrait 1576
Pelican Portrait 1576
Nicholas Hilliard, c. 1576-78
Plimpton Sieve Portrait 1579
Welbeck Portrait 1580
Quentin Sieve portrait 1583
Emmanuel College charter 1584
Ermine Portrait 1585
John Gower Portrait 1585
Queen Elizabeth I Feeds the Dutch Cow 1586
John Bette Portrait 1590
Parliament Robes 1590
The Ditchley portrait 1592
Bess of Hardwick 1592
Woodcuts 1596
Hardwick Hall 1599
The Procession Portrait 1600
Coronation Portrait 1600
Rainbow Portrait 1601-1603
[1] https://blogs.bl.uk/european/2021/11/elizabeth-i-and-languages.html
[2] https://www.rct.uk/collection/405796/the-family-of-henry-viii
[3] https://sudeleycastle.co.uk/news/allegory-tudor-succession-painting
[4] https://www.rct.uk/collection/403446/elizabeth-i-and-the-three-goddesses
[5] https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/elizabeth-i-marriage-succession
[6] https://www.royal.uk/elizabeth-i#:~:text=Elizabeth%20chose%20never%20to%20marry,the%20Queen%20into%20factional%20infighting.
[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portraiture_of_Elizabeth_I#
[8] https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/research/programmes/making-art-in-tudor-britain/case-studies/the-queens-likeness-portraits-of-elizabeth-i
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