Elizabeth I: The Embodiment of England by Stephen Christian-Noonan
The image of Elizabeth 1st is so familiar through the medium of paintings, film and television that it is embedded within our psyche. Over the last four hundred years the conundrum that is Elizabeth, especially as a woman continues to fascinate and intrigue.
To understand the iconography of Elizabeth we need to see the development of the aurora of Elizabeth and how she shaped an almost mythical persona of herself, through the portraits The Pelican (1575), the Phoenix (1575), the Sieve (1583) and the Armada (1588).
Even within her lifetime, her image was multi-layered. Elizabeth was depicted with mythical, symbolic and metaphorical existences, each portrayed in various ways by courtiers, painters and poets. Her very appearance means something to different worshippers and she herself is the embodiment of this. She is known as the Virgin Queen, Gloriana, Oriana, Good Queen Bess or Astraea. In The Faerie Queen we observe these allegories as we are introduced to the Red Crosse Knight {King Arthur}, Gloriana {Elizabeth 1st} and Faerie Land {England}. These are all symbolic of England and of which demonstrate England's alignment with the divine and through the will of God, Elizabeth is the rightful ruler (Edmund Spenser: The Faerie Queen). This belief is echoed in one of Greville`s sonnets:
Under a throne I saw a virgin sit,
The red and white rose quartered in her face.
Star of the north, and for true guards to it,
Princes, church, states, all pointing out her grace.
-Fulke,Greville, Caelica, sonnet 82 (ed. U. Ellis-Fermor, Gregynog Press, 1936, p103) in Francis A Yates: Astraea: Imperial Themes in the Sixteenth Century)
The time of discord was over. Now united under one ruler, there came a time which would be known as the “Pax Elizabethae”. With this union, the rose fuses fittingly into the mystic veneration of the one, pure, imperial British virgin. The various portraits of Elizabeth are steeped in religious allegories that show the world that she is the rightful ruler and she was chosen by God and that she is the `One`.
I weepe for joy to see the Sunne looke old,
To see the Moone mad at her often change,
To see the Starres onely by night to shine,
Whilst you are still bright, still one, still diuine
-Thomas Dekker, Old Fortunatus, Works, ed, I, p84 in Francis A Yates: Astraea: Imperial Themes in the Sixteenth Century.
As stated earlier and mentioned in the previous article, The Rainbow Portrait (Art Etcetera 15: Aug/Sept), this uniqueness is clearly demonstrated in other various portraits of Elizabeth: The Pelican (1575), the Phoenix (1575), the Sieve (1583) and the Armada (1588) We shall now look at these in turn.
The Pelican Portrait (1575), is attributed to the artist Nicholas Hilliard, (1547- 1619). He was a goldsmith and became famous for painting miniature portraiture. In Elizabethan England this was known as limning.
The Pelican portrait expresses her unselfish love for her people and country. During this time it was believed in times of starvation the mother Pelican would pluck at her own chest to feed her young ones with her blood to save their lives and this in turn exemplifies the un-selfless love of Elizabeth. The Tudor Rose though a symbol of unity represents the Virgin Mary and in this instance alludes to the secular successor to the Virgin Mary – Elizabeth.
The Phoenix Portrait (1575)
This painting is also attributed to the artist Nicholas Hilliard. The Phoenix is a mythical bird which symbolises virginity and rebirth. The Phoenix lives for 500 years then burns and from the ashes it is resurrected. This symbolises endurance and eternal life. In the later portraits one can observe a distortion of the aged Queens body in contrast to her facial features which illustrate forever young.
'the appearance of the Queen under the Mask of Youth or Beauty {in the Rainbow Portrait} constitutes an iconic representation of the legal fiction of the monarchs two bodies…if the King never dies, by the same logic the queen never ages: the body of the Monarch lives in a perpetual present.'
-Daniel Fischlin, "Political Allegory, Absolutist Ideology, and the "Rainbow Portrait" of Queen Elizabeth I", Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 50, No. 1 (Spring, 1997), pp. 175-206
The Sieve Portrait (1583)
This portrait was painted by the Flemish artist Quentin Metsys the younger (1541-1589). This is one of many such portraits by various artists. One of the earliest is by George Gower (1540-1596) and is now known as the Plimpton Sieve Portrait. It is referred by this name through the man Francis T.P.Plimpton who inherited it from his father, the publisher George Arthur Plimpton and gave it to the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC.
The imagery of the Sieve was to validate that Elizabeth was truly the Virgin Queen and to silence her accusers just like Tuccia. Tuccia was a renowed Vestal Virgin who was accused of not being a virgin. She appealed to the goddess Vesta who enabled her to carry a sieve full of water from the Tiber to Vesta`s temple without spilling a drop, which proved her innocence (Valerius Maximus: Memorable Doings and Sayings). This links with the journey of Aeneas who refused to marry Dido and continued his mission to found Rome (Virgil.The Aeneid) and this represents Elizabeth's desire to re-establish the prosperity of England.
The Armada Portrait.
This was painted by the English portrait painter George Gower (1540-1581). Within the Armada picture we have the sense that Elizabeth is far more commanding. As we look at the portrait, to her right we can see the calm sea where the English fleet is ready. To her left, we can see the turbulent English channel destroying the Spanish fleet. Below this, there is a siren. In mythology they lured sailors to their doom (Homer: The Odyssey). We see the defeat of the Armada and her gaze into the distance is for the future of her realm.
Her hand rests on a globe especially over the Americas. Just before this portrait was created, the first English child was born, Virginia Dare in 1587 at the English settlement Roanoke in Virginia. The globe tells us that Elizabeth’s power extends far beyond the boundaries of her kingdom.
The globe tells us that Elizabeth’s power extends far beyond the boundaries of her kingdom.
From these portraits we can see how Elizabeth supplies a rich index to the cultural history of English nationalism and her persona as the very nature and symbol of England.
People like to think of her as associated with and responsible for the rescue of England from poverty and depression, from the threat of the Spanish invasion. They look upon her also as responsible for the exaltation of England not only in literacy and artistic brilliance but the amazing commercial prosperity which laid the foundations of the British Empire as we know it in the time of Queen Victoria. The very name of Elizabeth arouses recollections of intellectual giants and poetic geniuses, wise statesmen and daring seamen adventurers. Her share in the religious reformation can never be forgotten. But lastly to the average Englishman Elizabeth's chief claim to reverence is the poetic illusion she conjures up of a Virgin Queen.
This section has been copyedited by the Editor.
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