Elizabeth I (1533-1603)

The Queen is shown facing slightly to the left, wearing a richly jewelled dress and holding an ostrich feather fan in her right hand. Her black bodice is decorated with bands of gold thread embroidery while her sleeves are embroidered with black silk in a variety of different fruits and flowers. At this time gossamer thin oversleeves were particularly fashionable and this may be what the artist here is attempting to represent. A complicated headdress included pleats of linen, jewels and pearls and from this hangs a fine veil. Around her neck is a linen and needlepoint lace ruff set into deep pleats, and similar spiky lace adorns her cuffs.

Dress was a key component in the iconography of Elizabeth I and was used to contribute to the cult of the ‘Virgin Queen’. Pearls have been associated with chastity since the middle ages, due to their perfect purity of shape and colour – here they are used to decorate the queen’s bodice and headdress in abundance. The resemblance of a pearl to the full moon also linked Elizabeth to Diana, chaste goddess of the moon and the hunt. This portrait shows the monarch in her favoured colour scheme of black and white, colours frequently adopted by courtiers in homage to the queen. Her sleeves are covered with foliate blackwork embroidery on white linen in a variety of stitches.

This is a contemporary version of a portrait painted in the 1580s. A similar portrait was presented to Cambridge University in 1588-9. The artist would have been British or a Flemish artist working in England.