From today's makeup seminar with Sharon, we did a review of Elizabethan portraiture and symbolism. We also looked at some Elizabethan cosmetic ingredients and recipes. I enjoyed learning about Queen Elizabeth and finding out some facts about her. I learned that she was only 5ft4, she didn't have the best skin as she had small pox, her teeth were also darkened by decay. She also had Alopecia which is probably why she wore wigs all the time. When getting her portraits done, she wanted them to show her as pure and royal and if someone painted a portrait that she wasn't happy with, she would have it destroyed. She was very self conscious of her image and wanted only the good portraits produced.
During the Renaissance period, this brought a whole new attitude to painting. New techniques were created and it started to become a lot more sophisticated. Elizabeth's portraits started to become used as propaganda material. She was definitely a feminist woman and there are many different proof sources to back this up. She used propaganda to project an image of female power. She had specific symbols into her portraits such as biblical, classical and mythological ones. This propaganda image was named 'The Cult of Elizabeth' and was used primarily to win over the people of her country.
There is a lot of proof of symbolism throughout her portraits, majority of people back in the Elizabethan times could not read so this had to be shown through the power of image.
For example with the Armada Portrait which was created in 1588 shows a lot of symbolism in it. She's wearing a lot of pearls around her neck as this is a symbol of purity and she loved being known as a pure woman or otherwise 'The Virgin Queen'. This was also known to have been one of the last presents her former man, Robert Darling bought her. In the top right of the image, you can see the defeat of the Armada, this side if the British and the top left corner shows the Spanish. In the bottom left of the image, there is a globe and if you look at Elizabeth's hand, her fingers are on South America which is apparently where she was planning to go next and told people to 'watch out'.
There are many other portraits which show symbolism in them, including The Rainbow Portrait which showed a heart jewel in her crown which showed that her passions are controlled by her wisdom. She was also still being painted as a young woman when actually she was in her late 60's. Rainbows were also meant to symbolise peace which might have been why she named it this as she wanted to make herself look like a peaceful and calm woman.
The Pelican Portrait is my favourite one. This was created in 1575 and when you look at Queen Elizabeth in the image, you can see a pelican brooch on her chest, the brooch shows the pelican pecking at it's own chest to protect it's young which shows devotion. Elizabeth wore this as she wanted to show that she is devoted to her country and people almost like she is their mother. She is also wearing cherries on her ear as this is a sign of purity.
On her garments, she would use crushed beetles (cochineal) to create the bright red dye as this showed power and made her look very wealthy (wealthiest woman in the world).
She was definitely a woman who constructed her own image, she wasn't afraid to be herself and dress how she wanted to. Almost like Frida Kahlo with her unibrow, this is another source of proof of her being a feminist woman.
We also looked at contemporary images that suggest wealth and power. We were put in small groups and asked to look at images online of what we thought showed power to us from this era compared to the Elizabethan era. We looked at objects as well as events, we looked at modelling for an advert, halloween, christmas, the guards outside Buckingham Palace, items of clothing such as handbags and brand logos. We show propaganda through all of these different items now, when you think of the wealthy Elizabethan people, you could tell what showed power and what didn't. I liked this exercise as I liked working in groups and coming up with different ideas. I don't think there was anything I was un sure about during the seminar. I enjoyed all of it and I feel like I learned a lot.
My next step now is to go off and do more research on Elizabethans and to find some contemporary images that show wealth and power. I am going to do this by researching on the internet and also by going to the library and reading some books about this. I can also go and find more out about this and see if there is anything else I can do to research the topic like see if there are any exhibitions on about Elizabethans or watch videos online with information about them.
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