Portraits can be simple likenesses, an aid to recognition, and a means of remembering someone. Some portraits can go beyond documentation and become interpretations from realistic, representational or abstract. They can be from life or posthumous portraits, rendered after death. Portraits can represent people for whom we do not know their true likenesses such as portraits of Jesus Christ or other religious figures. A portrait can be an introspect examination, a self-portrait. They can be a Tronie, a portrait of someone who has never existed, a pure construct, an assumed character. They can be a token of love or an expression of pure emotions and feelings and they can be a statement of power and strength. They can be political, truly powerful and richly layered images. A great portrait is so much more than just a snapshot rendered in paint.
She is puffed up, pasty-faced, dripping with pearls, rich and powerful with ideas of world domination and known as The Virgin Queen. welcome to the Queen Elizabeth I, Armada Portrait, a truly magnificent and complex image.
The title, Queen Elizabeth the first, Armada portrait, is attributed to any 3 of the similar surviving allegorical panel paintings of the same subject. It’s a painting full of symbolism to emphasise the political and powerful nature of this staggering, life-sized painting with a landscape format.
The portrait was formerly attributed to the painter, George Gower but curators at the National Portrait Gallery now believe that all three versions were created in separate workshops, and have now assigned the attributions to “an unknown English artist”
The portrait was designed to be a spectacle of female power and majesty, carefully calculated to inspire awe, wonder and respect, compassion, humility and fear, a kind of manifesto of her future reign.
Elizabeth was a Protestant Tudor Queen and this painting is dripping with symbolism to make a powerful point of her political status and her right to be Queen of England, independent from Catholic rule (The plucky Brits love being independent and Brexit is the latest manifestation of that desire). It is also a statement of the intended nature of her reign. This is a time in history when England could, without irony, be proud to be English.
The painting is seen with a backdrop of the almost miraculous defeat of the superior numbers of the Spanish Armada in 1588.
English art of this time was untouched by the spread of Italian and Northern renaissance developments sweeping Europe. England was isolated from the trends developing in Catholic Italy. English art was closer to Flemish manuscript illumination and heraldic representation. Developing naturalism in painting was yet to impact English art.
In the background, we can see 2 views of the defeat of the Spanish Armada. On the left we see English fireships drifting towards the Spanish causing them to disperse. On the right, we have the Spanish ships floundering as they smash against the rocks from violent storms which became known as the ‘Protestant Wind’.
After the defeat of the Spanish invasion, England rejoiced with no doubt a lot of flag waving. However, the following year in 1589, England countered with the English Armada led by Sir Francis Drake, it was a disaster with the English fleet suffering a catastrophic defeat, the advantage England had won, was lost, but we keep quiet about that one.
On a secondary level, the scenes can be interpreted as one of enlightenment and leaving the past behind. This is represented by the sunlit scene on the left and the end to darkness with the defeat of the Armada, the dark scene on the right, behind her turned back, looking from past to future. The problem with symbolism is that it depends on an inherent, knowledge and understanding and fails to work if forgotten about. Thankfully there are plenty of art connoisseurs who can keep this knowledge alive.
To the right of the Queen in the corner of the painting is an egg shape finial. The egg has a history of representing fertility, rebirth and eternal life, and is an auspicious symbol of wealth, luck and health.
On the left, the Queen has strategically placed her hand on a globe indicating her power and will, to command the seas. It also indicates ambitions beyond Europe with possible world ambitions, especially towards the Americas where Sir Walter Raleigh had attempted to establish England’s first colony there in 1585. It is a clear message of the aspirations of a global empire.
In the right bottom corner, carved on the chair of state, is a more complex symbol, a carving of a mermaid a symbol of the strength of women. It is also claimed that it either represents female cunning by luring sailors to their deaths. It has another potential meaning which is that the mermaid symbolises the executed Mary Queen of Scots, Elizabeth’s sister. Elizabeth has her back to this symbol, possibly indicating that their troubles, conspiracies and Mary’s execution have been put behind her, Elizabeth is closing that chapter and moving forward to better more enlightened and peaceful times.
The Queen’s attire is decorated with symbols of the Sun and stars on her skirt and sleeves. The Sun is a signifier of power, life and enlightenment, a positive symbol. Stars are symbols of Heaven and a connection to God, a King or Queens divine right to rule. Stars were also a symbol of Cynthia, the goddess of the Moon who herself was untouched, pure and virginal.
Everything about this portrait is carefully constructed from the deep symbolism to the underlying structure such as the repeated rings and curves echoing the roundness and curves of the Queen’s face, Crown and globe or the black and white colour scheme of the dress, not surprisingly another symbol of virginity and steadfastness.
The luxurious dress and its vastly expensive adornments indicate the financial wealth of the country. The Queen’s dress is spectacular, a status symbol oozing richness with pearls smothering the dress, hanging in swags around her neck, in her hair and sown on the edging of her cape. The swags of pearls draw the eye down through the centreline of her bodice to a large pearl decorated with a bow. This exaggerated pearl rests close to her sex. The pearl is a powerful symbol of her virginity and as with Henry, the VIII’s enlarged codpiece was a symbol of his virality. That is not to say that physically she was a virgin, she probably was not, she was known to have her lovers and possibly a child. The entire mass of pearls impresses her virginity symbolically to the people of England, her virginity to the Crown and her virginity to God.
Her sumptuous gown is bold, puffed up to make her seem large to stamp her authority and power but at the same time, she shows her benevolence and compassion indicated by her delicate, small hands and small delicate face framed by the lace ruff. The black masses of her costume cut through with the downward pull of her layers of pearls which gives her a more slim, petite, feminine and graceful look. There is a complex duality going on here. The queen’s sturdy posture with open arms and calm gaze signify vivacity and strength. The power and strength of her posture may symbolise a medieval concept of the ‘King’s two bodies, a frail physical body and a spiritual body, from where the true power originates. Her body may be ‘weak as a woman (as she once described in a famous speech), but her strength emanates from a stronger higher power.
Queen Elisabeth is holding a fixed feather fan of ostrich feathers, a symbol of wealth and traditionally the symbol of the Prince of Wales, the male heir to the throne. This is effectively a clever way to indicate an emphasis on both her male and female characteristics and ruling abilities to exceed that of a man’s abilities, alone. An interplay of gender identity is very modern and topical today.
The portraiture of Queen Elizabeth I was very carefully controlled and developed into an elaborate but unrealistic iconic style, producing some amazing images. The Armada portrait is no exception. It is not a portrait of realism or naturalism. Capturing her likeness was not the intent. Knowing what she looked like was not important. Portraying what she represented was the message, showing the world of her as the most powerful person next to God, a portrait of almost divine power and inspiration, this is what is important here, not identified by her face but by her status and what she represents.
Her face is pasty white, adding to the sense of her virginity but it conceals a flaw. Elizabeth contracted smallpox in 1562 and almost died. Her face was scarred with pockmarks so she hid her face with heavy white make-up made from lead white and vinegar which, ironically slowly poisoned her instead.
An interesting aspect of Queen Elizabeth’s portraits is that she rarely sat for portraits and instead had several approved face patterns from which multiple paintings could be made, effectively the artists would create the costume and the rest of the painting without a sitting and then simply inserted one of the pre-approved face designs.
