The evolution of Elizabeth's image
Heir to the throne
Reflecting the concerns of Elizabeth and her government, early portraits stress her God-given right to rule and assert her legitimacy as the rightful heir to the throne. They draw on the Tudor heritage, particularly that of Henry VII and the unification of the country after the Wars of the Roses.
During the 1570s, portraits of Elizabeth began to function more overtly as propaganda or as homages to the Queen. Elizabeth never appointed a royal painter, as had her predecessors, so much of the construction of her image was undertaken by artists and the patrons who commissioned the portraits.
Her gender could not be ignored but had to be transcended, in order to project an image of female power. To do so, a whole host of symbols and emblems were appropriated from biblical, classical and mythological sources, which would have been familiar to their audiences. This would have pleased Elizabeth, who was herself a highly educated woman and had a profound sense of the authority of history. (See the portrait of 'Elizabeth I with a pelican emblem'.)
Virgin Queen
Elizabeth's marital status was also an issue. Unable to marry the man of her choice (Robert Dudley) without tarnishing her reputation or causing national divisions, or to find an alternative that was acceptable to her, the government and the public, Elizabeth remained single. After the failure of the last serious proposal in the early 1580s, Elizabeth's evasion of marriage was portrayed as an act of self-sacrifice, which had kept England out of the foreign entanglements and compromises that would have accompanied a royal marriage.
Virginity was a courtly ideal with romantic connotations. In her youth, Elizabeth's virginity had been played-up for its connotations of purity, innocence and chastity, making her an attractive marriage proposition. As she aged, these qualities were fused with that of her maternal sacrifice of herself for the greater good, lending an air of holiness to her calling and inviting comparisons with the Virgin Mary.
Elizabeth's virginity became a symbol of national independence and Elizabeth as the mother of her nation, who put her subjects' welfare before her own desires. She was not an old maid, but the Virgin Queen.
The cult of the Virgin Queen was in full swing during the 1580s and 1590s and demand for portraits of Elizabeth rose. More symbols were required to express her virgin status. She began to be presented more directly as the personification of various mythological or literary figures, and her appearance became more and more magnificent as she was transformed into an emblem of beauty and virtue.
Gloriana
With the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 the cult of Elizabeth reached new heights and demand for her image soared. Very few artists had the opportunity to paint the queen from life: most worked from approved 'face patterns' derived from official portraits, which presented an eternally youthful queen. (See the portrait of Elizabeth I with the Cardinal and Theological Virtues)
Elizabeth was also honoured in other mediums, notably with musical compositions dedicated to her by Thomas Tallis and William Byrd, and poems praising her by Ben Jonson, Sir Walter Ralegh and Edmund Spenser. In 1589, Spenser published the first three books of his epic The Faerie Queen, which he dedicated to Elizabeth:
the most High, Mightie and Magnificent Empresses renowned for pietie, vertue and all gratious government Elizabeth by the Grace of God Queene of England Fraunce and Ireland and of Virginia, Defendour of the Faith, &c
The queen of the land of Faerie is Gloriana – that is, Elizabeth, as Spenser made clear in a letter to Sir Walter Ralegh:
In that Faery Queen I mean glory in my general intention but in my particular I conceive the most excellent and glorious person of our sovereign…
Courtesy of Spenser, the transformation is complete, Elizabeth the Virgin Queen, the semi-divine goddess is not only the embodiment of State, Church, Empire and Virtue, but has also been immortalized as 'Gloriana'. The mythologizing of Elizabeth and her reign continued long after her death and she became an icon of national integrity and unity.