Representing the Queen
She beauty is; by her the fair endure.
Time wears her not: she doth his chariot guide;
Mortality below her orb is plac'd;
By her the virtue of the stars down slide;
In her is virtue's perfect image cast.
From 'Prais'd be Diana's Fair and Harmless Light', by Sir Walter Ralegh (1554–1618)
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That was the reaction of one of Elizabeth's subjects upon seeing her for the first time. Elizabeth...
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Portraits of royalty are less concerned with capturing the likeness of a person than with...
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Elizabeth's gender could not be ignored but had to be transcended, in order to project an image of...
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In the portrait of Elizabeth I with a pelican emblem, about 1574, painted by Nicholas Hilliard, a...
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Very few artists had the opportunity to paint Elizabeth from life. Most worked from approved 'face...