page_title: Portraiture of Elizabeth I
section_title: Overview
hierarchical_section_title: Portraiture of Elizabeth I / Overview
caption_attribution_description: The Clopton Portrait of Elizabeth I of England, oil on oak panel, 26 ½ x 19 1/8 inches 67.5 x 48.9 cm. Elizabeth wears the "bag" of her French hood over her forehead as a bongrace or shade. By descent in the Clopton family, Clopton House, Stratford on Avon; now in a private collection.
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.
caption: Elizabeth "in blacke with a hoode and cornet", the Clopton Portrait, c. 1558–60
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