Favourite Image - National Portrait Gallery

The Coronation portrait, 1559

When we visited the National Portrait Gallery in London, we were asked to look at all the images in the exhibition and pick our favourite one. I spent a long time looking round at all the different photos that showed different people from the Elizabethan Era including Queen Elizabeth herself and then I decided on this image as my favourite piece. I chose this image because I find Queen Elizabeth very interesting, I liked reading about her background and finding out more about her.

The image I chose of her is called 'The Coronation portrait'. It shows Elizabeth wearing a gold crown that she had worn at her coronation on 15th January 1559. The crown had been previously worn by Mary I, and then passed on to her. She is shown with several accessories in the image including an orb and a spectre. Elizabeth was known for her love of symbols in her portraits and she liked to show people that she was very powerful. The orb in her hand represents the world and she is holding it because she wants people to know that she was power and control over England and she is planning to try and take over the rest of the world too. She is also holding a spectre and this could be to show people that she means business, she will hurt anyone who gets in her way of taking control of the world.

I think this image is very powerful, it shows Elizabeth as being a very rich and wealthy woman. There is no emotion in her face or body, she is sat straight forward and looking directly ahead with no smile or emotion. You can see that her face is very pale as this is when she started changing her makeup to make herself look more powerful. The older she got, the more her makeup changed. She is wearing a pale face base, she has very minimal and barely noticeable eyebrows and to finish the look off, she has rosy red cheeks. 

For her outfit, it looks like she is wearing animal's fur as a coat and around her neck, finished with a tight corset with a long, wide gown. The older Elizabeth got and the more powerful she became, the more she started to change to make herself look influential to her country and people. Her outfits became more elegant, her jewellery became a lot more expensive and she started wearing jewellery that stood out such as bright gold necklaces and diamond pins and pearls in her hair and around her neck. She wore a lot more makeup to look powerful and this also helped to cover up the scars and lines on her face the older she got.