Elizabeth in Portraiture

Elizabeth wanted her portraits to show purity, chastity, her love of peace, her success as a ruler at home and her conquest of the new world.

The combination of the renascence and Elizabeths popularity meant that her portraits became full of symbolism.

The cult of Elizabeth is an idea that we set in stone that we should celebrate this idea of her as the virgin queen, she is the sacred one and the deliverer of people.

She was very aware of what her image was and it was all part of the propaganda at the time.

What was she like?

·      Height 5’4”

·      Skin was blemished by small pox & burned by lead oxide makeup.

·      Teeth blackened by decay

·      Halitosis

·      Alopecia

The queens popularity grew during this time and there was an increasing request for portraits but she destroyed those that didn’t fit her propaganda. The style of the queens portraits also changed throughout the years due to painting techniques changing and it is the renascence which brought ink more life like and elaborate paintings.

Elizabeth recognised the value of public relations and was no stranger to self marketing.

Most portraits are instantly recognisable. She tends to wear a crown but also has other symbols of power.

Noble men and noble women wore symbols of loyalty. In the early years her portraits were simple but over the years they become more rich and complicated.

Portraits of Elizabeth I (no date). Marilee Mongello. Available at: http://www.marileecody.com/eliz1-images.html (Accessed: 27 October 2014).

Coronation Portrait;

Holding the orb and sceptre

Hair down as she is unmarried

Contrast of pale skin and hair.

Queen Elizabeth I (no date). Available at: http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw02077/Queen-Elizabeth-I?LinkID=mp01452 (Accessed: 27 October 2014).

Armada Portrait;

The gaze away indicates power. Very controlling.

There is a crown to show she is queen

The ships on the left are the English those on the right are the Spanish ships being destroyed.

Pearls show the high status of purity.

Imperial ambitions- her hand is on south America, the source of Spain's gold.

History at a Glance (no date). Posts about Princes in the Tower on History at a Glance. Available at: https://examininghistory.wordpress.com/tag/princes-in-the-tower/ (Accessed: 27 October 2014).

Tudor rose;

The Tudor Rose was used to refer to the Tudor dynasty and emphasis her right to the throne.

It also had religious connotations as a symbol of the Virgin Mary.

Mari Lee Cody. 2008. Elizabeth Rainbow 1. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.marileecody.com/gloriana/elizabethrainbow1.jpg. [Accessed 27 October 14].

The Rainbow portrait-1600.

The gown is embroidered with English wild flowers, she is posed as Astrea; The virginal heroine in English literature. Her gown is embroidered with eyes and ears to symbolise she sees everything. A sense of omniscience.

The pearls symbolise her virginity and purity.

Above her gown there is a crescent shaped jewel to allude to Cynthia the goddess of the moon.

The jewelled serpent on her arm holds a heart shaped ruby in its mouth symbolises wisdom and in turn the ruby signifies the queens heart; Wisdom has captured the queens heart.

There is celestial sphere above her head connoting her passion controlled by wisdom

In her right hand she holds a rainbow which symbolises peace and the inscription “no rainbow without sun” tells the people that she brings peace.

She is late 60’s in the picture and she is seen as being ageless and immortal.

.Available at: http://www.marileecody.com/eliz1-images.html (Accessed: 27 October 2014).

The Pelican Portrait 1575 Nicholas Hilliard

In this painting there are a number of symbols such as pearls, the Tudor Rose and the pelican pendant pinned to her chest.

The pelican symbolises love. That is because it has a whole host of associations that Elizabeth adopted herself. It is a myth that Mother pelicans will pluck their own breast to feed their children and often die in the process; an undying love.

The Tudor period follows the medieval period the pelican was seen as a symbol of Christs sacrifice and so it was easy for Elizabeth to adopt this symbolism to represent herself as the mother of her people.

She is dressed in a colour that made up most of her wardrobe (black white red and gold) these colours send messages of wealth and status. They are the most expensive to produce.

She also wore bright colours that were dyed with cochineal. When she does choose to wear red its doing a two finger salute to Spain, they had the power over cochineal and its use was restricted and limited to the wealthy.

Blackwork is embroidery of black thread on white cloth used to create a lace like effect, popular when lace was difficult to obtain. This is visible in this portrait and the blackwork is constructed of lots of Tudor roses.

She has cherries tucked in her right ear which symbolise her virginity; the cherry remains intact.

 

Queen Elizabeth I (no date b) Hilliard, N. National Portrait Gallery. Available at: http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw02074/Queen-Elizabeth-I?LinkID=mp01452 (Accessed: 27 October 2014).

The phoenix portrait, 1572, Nicholas Hilliard.

A lot of the symbolism alludes to her unmarried status. The jewel at her breast a phoenix symbolising rebirth and chastity alludes to her virginity and that she would regenerate the dynasty; she would marry and have children. Showed other monarchs that she was available.

Tudor rose is shown in this portrait too.

Queen Elizabeth I, The Ermine Portrait', Nicholas Hilliard, 1585, from the Elizabeth I and her People exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery

The Ermine Portrait, 1585, Nicholas Hilliard.

The ermine was a symbol of royalty and in this portrait it wears a little gold crown which symbolises majesty and purity.

She is wearing a bejewelled black gown on a black portrait one of her favourite colours.

She wears the three brothers jewel

She has the sword of state that rest next to her to symbolise justice and she holds and olive branch to symbolise peace.

Available at: http://www.shafe.co.uk/crystal/images/lshafe/Metsys_Elizabeth_I_The_Sieve_Portrait_c1583.jpg (Accessed: 27 October 2014).

The Sieve Portrait.

The sieve is a symbol of virginity and purity reaching back to ancient roman, where the vestal virgin, Tuccia, reputedly proved her purity by having water unsplit through a sieve.

It was to glorify Elizabeth's virginity and associate England with the roman empire.

It was all about making her seem available and unmarried, pure to her state.

History Of The Monarchy (no date) Royal.gov. Available at: http://www.royal.gov.uk/historyofthemonarchy/kingsandqueensofengland/thetudors/elizabethi.aspx (Accessed: 27 October 2014).

 The book

This image was included in the portrait of Elizabeth as a 14 year old and the portrait was comminsioned by Edward as a gift. The image of her finger marks the pages of the small book, this demonstrates her pious Protestantism which must have pleased her brother.

Other Symbols

 Gloves represent elegance, olive branches represent peace, crowns, orbs and septres signify monarchy.

Dogs represent faithfulness, the breed associated with the Tudors was the greyhound.

Modern days status symbols; 

small dogs, designer accessories, over sexualisation, big booty, gold is more valuable than rocks, engagement rings.

The setting which someone chooses to be pictured and the setting within which someone is portraited shows more their ambitions and wants.

Kevyn Aucoin

Kevyn Aucoin is considered one of the first celebrity makeup artists. He has worked with stars from Kate Moss to Cindy Crawford.
Originally from Louisiana, Keyvn got a bus to New York City where he began his non stop career.
After a chance meeting at Vogue Kevyn landed himself his dream career within months he was working with Steven Miesel.

Essential Glamour. Kevyn Aucoin (no date). About » Kevyn Aucoin. Available at: http://kevynaucoin.com/the-brand (Accessed: 27 October 2014).

Releasing his first makeup line in 2001 Kevyn unfortunately passed in 2002 but his products are still as well loved and used over the world to this day. 

A favourite of mine has to be the Sensual Skin Enhancer. A versatile skin-enhancer. It can be used as a full coverage foundation or concealer and can be diluted with moisturiser to fit all skin types. The Kevyn Aucoin website states it "creates a flawless canvas".

Sensual Skin Enhancer (no date). Sensual Skin Enhancer 18g Women. Available at: http://uk.spacenk.com/sensual-skin-enhancer/MUS300022865.html (Accessed: 27 October 2014).

Contemporary Image homework

We were asked to find a contempary image that reflected wealth and status with Modern day sitter. I chose this picture of Kim Kardashian on her wedding day, the first thing I saw was her dress, the designer was everything. She kept the dress and all the wedding details secret until after the wedding   The second thing I noticed was her now husband Kanye. The arm candy is a great modern day status symbol and the fact that they are both famous and rich means they are a power couple. 

The main focus of Kim is her "booty" which is definitely a big thing at the minute with the Stars. It's all about the "big booty"   The whole celebrity wedding theme is a big thing and something the media pay thousands to get a scoop of. 

(2014) Kardashian, K. kimkardashian on Instagram. Available at: http://instagram.com/kimkardashian (Accessed: 21 October 2014).

I then made my own contemporary portrait of how I want to portray myself. I wore a fur coat because I love this coat. It's something my grandma bought it and I'm a big family person so I used this to show it. I'm holding a Buddha to reflect happiness and good fortune in my life. The makeup brushes reflect what I want to do with my life. Peppa pig spaghetti shapes are my favourite thing in life and so I had to include those as something that brings happiness into my life. The debit card reflects how I would like to be successful and wealthy but at the moment the student loan is being spent on peppa pig spaghetti.  

Colour Theory

A colour circle, based on red, yellow and blue, the chromatic colours, is traditional in the field of art. Sir Isaac Newton developed the first circular diagram of colours in 1666. Since then, scientists and artists have studied and designed numerous variations of this concept.

The Great Manchester Health Experiment uses colour wheel to measure and influence people’s happiness (2011) Optimist World. Available at: http://optimistworld.com/Great-Manchester-Health-Experiment-colour-wheel-happiness/ (Accessed: 20 October 2014).

We can define colours by;

• Lightness
• Saturation 
• Hue

Words to describe colour include;

Light, dark, pale, matte, shiny, satin, deep, intense, dull, muted, clear, cool, warm, dynamic

What are Primary Colors plus ......Secondary & Tertiary In-Betweens ?(no date). Color Wheels for Primary Colors, Secondary Colors and Tertiary Colors. Available at: http://www.color-wheel-artist.com/primary-colors.html (Accessed: 20 October 2014).

Primary Colours; these are the colours that cant be mixed or formed by any other colour combination. All other colours are created from these.

Secondary Colours: Green, Orange and Purple are formed by mixing the primary colours.

Tertiary Colours: these are formed by mixing primary and secondary colours.

Colour context is how the colours behave in realtion to each other. 

Complementary- colours that are opposite each other on the colour wheel

Analogous- colours the are next to each other on the colour wheel.

Achromatic- white, black and all shades of grey.

Monochromatic- working with all shades of one colour

In class we had to recreate our monochromatic face chart on a class mate.

I like the effect that the contouring gave, almost gave an alien look to my model. I started with a white base achieved with Illamasqua Skin Base 01 and used Kryolan eyeshadows in Shallot, Black Pepper, Sage Blossom and Lavender to build the colour and contour on the face. To create the eyeliner and lip colour I mixed MAC Lipmix in Blue, Red and White.
I think I managed to get the final look to reflect the facechart however the blending needed more work. This is something I will take into account next time. 

Cleanse, Tone and Moisturise

The best base for any makeup is a clean face. Cleansing, toning and moisturising is essential if the model is already wearing makeup prior to the shoot otherwise the finished look will look grubby.

First of all the model must be sat down int he artist chair and asked if they have any allergy's as this could prevent you using a certain product on their skin to avoid irritation.

Once this has been discussed the makeup artist then must wash their hands, its best to tell your model you're doing this just to reassure them.

Lay down some couch roll and the equipment you'll need;

• Cleanser
• Toner 
• Moisturiser
• Cotton wool pads
• Baby Buds

Cleanse;

Take the cleanser on the cotton wool pads and starting at the neck move upwards. removing anything on the face.

take extra care around the delicate eye area, even asking the model if they would want to do this themselves as they have a better judgement of how firm to be.

With the eyebrows go against the hair before going the opposite way to remove all product.

Finally, taking some cleanser on the back of your hand and dipping a baby bud in it,gently go over the lash line to remove any hard to remove mascara or eyeliner.

Take care around piercings. The model may agree to remove them, if not ask them to go around their piercing with a baby bud.

All the makeup must be removed before moving onto the next step.

Tone;

Repeat the above steps with toner to remove the cleanser residue and close the pores.

Moisturise;

Apply a pea sized amount of moisturiser to the skin to act as a base under the makeup. Gently massage this into the skin using upwards motions. 

After my first attempt I felt I got most of my models makeup off however it was difficult to get all the eyeliner off and so more time spent on the eyes would have been better. 

New Elizabethan brief- About me

We've been set our first project brief called "New Elizabethans". For this project we have to find an Elizabethan portrait and a contemporary version that we feel reflects the sitter and links the two in some way, this could be a picture of our favourite singer as long as the two relate in some way. 

We then have to take inspiration from these images to create a look and design a minimum of 4 face charts to show our progress throughout the project. 

The final assessment will be 2 hours long in which we have to create a face chart of our final look with notes and then our partner has to apply the makeup onto us.

I don't have any previous experience in makeup but I have been self taught since an early age. 

I studied Elizabethan theatre at A level and so I do have a little experience in this subject which should help my understanding of the context of our project. Hopefully that knowledge will help me to do well on my project and should help the development of my research.

Usually I'm not well at time management so that is a personal goal of mine for this project.

Morrill, J. S. (2014) ‘Elizabeth I (queen of England)’, Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica. Available at: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/184810/Elizabeth-I (Accessed: 8 October 2014).

I am really excited for this project because I think Elizabeth the first is such an interesting character and the era itself and the Renaissance are fun to study and something which can bring a lot of inspiration.

The elizabethan portrait I chose was the one shown below. 

The contempary version of this sitter I found was an image of Beyonce in her O2 advertisment.

Beyoncé Announces ‘Mrs. Carter Show’ World Tour Dates (2013). Beyoncé Announces ‘Mrs. Carter Show’ World Tour Dates | MTV UK. Available at: http://www.mtv.co.uk/beyonce/news/beyonce-announces-mrs-carter-show-world-tour-dates (Accessed: 8 October 2014).