Tea at Trianon: The Human Face of Elizabeth I

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Saturday, October 3, 2020

The Human Face of Elizabeth I

From The Tudor Travel Guide:

However, this rare early portrait of Elizabeth is notable for its life-like depiction of the queen early on in her reign – indeed before the construction of the Elizabethan iconography we associate with her today. In other words, that associated with the ‘Rainbow’ and ‘Armada’ portraits in which Elizabeth was presented as a remote goddess and perfected emblem of her own self-fashioning; images where she perfectly embodied Statehood, Empire, and a God-given right to rule.

The unknown artist who painted our more life-like representation makes use of the ‘Hampden’ portrait face-pattern. The Hampden portrait was an important full-length panel of the queen, made in the early 1560s. It was one of the first official court images of the young monarch from which a number of subsequent portraits including the present work were modelled. Infra-red examination of our version reveals careful under-drawing to define the contours of the face. Conservator Rosie Gleave of the Courtauld Institute of Art, has noted that our portrait has probably been cut down from a larger composition: ‘Physical evidence, including the presence of large dowels at the side of the painting… and later, roughly beveled edges, strongly suggests that the panel was once a larger image. It may have been a ¾ or full-length portrait, in line with other versions based on the Hampden portrait.’[2] (Read more.)

From Ancient History Encyclopedia:

In 1558 CE Elizabeth I inherited a fragile kingdom divided within by religious beliefs and surrounded by enemies abroad. All territory in France had now been lost, the state was almost bankrupt, and politics was still very much a male-dominated arena where a queen was expected to marry as soon as possible. Consequently, Elizabeth had to tread carefully and, refusing to marry, she instead cultivated an image of herself as the Virgin Queen. Elizabeth was married only to her kingdom, she said, and so was able to concentrate on the good of all her people. This became the central message of the queen’s iconography and was put into words in her reply to Parliament’s move to have her marry in 1559 CE:
Nothing, no worldy thing under the sun, is so dear to me as the love and goodwill of my subjects. In the end this shall be for me sufficient, that a marble stone shall declare that a queen, having reigned such a time, lived and died a virgin.
(Phillips, 116)
Whether the queen was still a virgin or not mattered little; officially, at least, she remained chaste. Like the great goddesses of antiquity Athena/Minerva and Artemis/Diana or the Lady of Arthurian chivalric literature who attracted courtly love, she would remain apart from and above all men. Indeed, Elizabeth’s carefully controlled public image began with the veneration of the queen herself as a semi-divine figure. Elizabeth's date of succession, 17 November, was declared a national holiday and was celebrated each year with great festivities, church services, and bell-ringing. Further, Elizabeth, who continued the English Reformation begun by her father Henry VIII of England (r. 1509-1547 CE) and elder half-brother Edward VI of England (r. 1547-1553 CE), became the living embodiment of the Virgin Mary, the ultimate Defender of the Faith monarch. The Bishop’s Bible, printed from 1569 CE gave another opportunity to reinforce the link. The frontispiece showed Elizabeth being crowned by the four virtues of Fortitude, Justice, Mercy, and Prudence. Another avenue to reach a wide audience was to have paintings celebrating the queen’s success over the Spanish Armada (see below) hung in churches now largely stripped of their Catholic adornments. The queen’s image appeared not only in paintings (from life-size works to miniatures) but also woodcut prints, engravings, coins, medals, badges, and jewelled brooches. Miniatures of Elizabeth became almost like religious icons and were worn on noble chests of both sexes to show support and deference to their great queen. (Read more.)