page_title: Portraiture of Elizabeth I
section_title: The Virgin Queen
hierarchical_section_title: Portraiture of Elizabeth I / The Virgin Empress of the Seas / The Virgin Queen
caption_attribution_description: Elizabeth I, Queen of England, depicted with a sieve in her left hand. The sieve alludes to the myth of Tuccia, a roman Vestal Virgin who proved her virginity by carrying water with a sieve.
context_page_description: The portraiture of Elizabeth I illustrates the evolution of English royal portraits in the Early Modern period from the representations of simple likenesses to the later complex imagery used to convey the power and aspirations of the state, as well as of the monarch at its head.
  Even the earliest portraits of Elizabeth I contain symbolic objects such as roses and prayer books that would have carried meaning to viewers of her day. Later portraits of Elizabeth layer the iconography of empire—globes, crowns, swords and columns—and representations of virginity and purity—such as moons and pearls—with classical allusions to present a complex "story" that conveyed to Elizabethan era viewers the majesty and significance of their Virgin Queen.
context_section_description: A series of Sieve Portraits copy the Darnley face pattern and add an allegorical overlay that depicts Elizabeth as Tuccia, a Vestal Virgin who proved her chastity by carrying a sieve full of water from the Tiber River to the Temple of Vesta without spilling a drop. The first Sieve Portrait was painted by George Gower in 1579, but the most influential image is the 1583 version by Quentin Metsys (or Massys) the Younger.
  In the Metsys version, Elizabeth is surrounded by symbols of empire, including a column and a globe, iconography that would appear again and again in her portraiture of the 1580s and 1590s, most notably in the Armada Portrait of c. 1588.  The medallions on the pillar to the left of the queen illustrate the story  of Dido and Aeneas, ancestor of Brutus, suggesting that like Aeneas, Elizabeth's destiny is to reject marriage and found an empire.  This painting's patron was likely Sir Christopher Hatton (his heraldic badge of the white hind appears on the sleeve of one of the courtiers in the background), and the work may express opposition to the proposed marriage of Elizabeth to François, Duke of Anjou.
  The virgin Tuccia was familiar to Elizabethan readers from Petrarch's "The Triumph of Chastity".  Another symbol from this work is the spotless ermine, wearing a collar of gold studded with topazes. This symbol of purity appears in the Ermine Portrait of 1585, attributed to the herald William Segar.  The queen bears the olive branch of Pax (Peace), and the sword of justice rests on the table at her side.  In combination, these symbols represent not only the personal purity of Elizabeth but the "righteousness and justice of her government."
caption: The Plimpton Sieve Portrait by George Gower, 1579
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