How many portraits of queen elizabeth i

Her lavish dress is black and white—black representing authority and power, and white symbolizing not only purity, but also wealth, as it was an expensive shade to maintain—and she is dripping in pearls. Some are even woven into her hair. Although the portraits share many similarities, there are several key distinctions between the artworks.

Poor ones, or those that did not show the Queen at her best, would not do that. The style of the Queen's portraits also changed because of the new painting techniques that the artists were developing.

The Renaissance had brought with it a whole new attitude to painting, and techniques were becoming more sophisticated, resulting in more life like, elaborate, paintings. The beginnings of this can be seen in the reign of Henry VII, as his portraits are of much better quality than his medieval predecessors. The combination of the Renaissance and the Queen's almost mythical popularity resulted in portraits that are full of symbolism.

The portraits were very much a part of what has been called "The Cult of Elizabeth", which is essentially the idea that the fossilising of the celebration of Elizabeth as "The Virgin Queen", the sacred one, the deliverer of the people, was very much a propaganda campaign by the government to win the loyalty of the people.

In recent years, however, his ideas have received a lot of criticism, and is it an ongoing debate as to whether Elizabeth's reputation as "The Virgin Queen" was due to a deliberate propaganda campaign, or whether it was a genuine tribute to the successful and popular Queen by her people. So what did she really look like? Quotes from visitors to her Court can perhaps shed some light. Nevertheless, she speaks of her beauty as often as she can. It is known however that she contracted smallpox in which left her face scarred.

She took to wearing white lead makeup to cover the scars. Reader, writer and professional daydreamer very accomplished at this last one. James, and fascinated by Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy. Being undeniably visual, she feels directly connected by art and music to the people of the past and therefore their experiences and feelings. Agnolo di Cosimo , known as Bronzino, was an Italian Mannerist painter. He lived and worked in Florence and became the court painter of Joanna Kaszubowska 20 October Never miss DailyArt Magazine's stories.

Sign up and get your dose of art history delivered straight to your inbox! William Scots attr. The Coronation Portrait , c. The Darnley Portrait , c. Elizabethan Gardens of North Carolina. We love art history and writing about it. Your support helps us to sustain DailyArt Magazine and keep it running. Sarah Mills. We use cookies to provide website functionality, to analyze traffic on our DailyArt Sites, personalize Our Cookie Statement provides more information and explains how to update your cookie settings.

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