The Ditchley Portrait

Historical Context

Arefact Details

Inscriptions

• Sir Henry Lee
• Champion of the queen from 1559-1590
• Commemorates an entertainment Lee organised for the Queen in 1592
• Ongoing Cult of Elizabeth I
• Ongoing maritime exploration, and capture of ships

Three Latin inscriptions and a sonnet.

• Painting of Queen Elizabeth I
• Painted by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger
• For Sir Henry Lee
• Made in approximately 1592
• Size: 95 in. x 60 in.
• Oil on Canvas

Left:“She gives and does not expect”

Right: “She can but does not take revenge”

Bottom right: "In giving back she increases (?)”

Cult of Elizabeth the Great

Forgiveness

• Involved the nobility
• Commissioned portraits of Elizabeth I
• Showed support and loyalty
• Increased number of Elizabeth I portraits

• Portraits highlights Elizabeth's forgiveness of Sir Henry Lee
• Forgiveness was reason for 1592 entertainment
• Shown through foot placement, sky and sonnet

Bibliography

Interpretation of the Artefact

Maritime Exploration

Representing Elizabeth I

Presenting Events

• Gheeraerts, Marcus, ‘The Ditchley Portrait’, Wikimedia Commons <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Queen_Elizabeth_I_(%27The_Ditchley_portrait%27)_by_Marcus_Gheeraerts_the_Younger.jpg> [last accessed 12 September 2017]
• Howey, Catherine L., ‘Dressing a Virgin Queen: Court Women, Dress, and Fashioning the Image of England's Queen Elizabeth I’, Early Modern Women, 4 (2009), 201-208
• Labriola, Albert C., ‘Painting and Poetry of the Cult of Elizabeth I: The Ditchley Portrait and Donne's “Elegie: Going to Bed”’, Studies in Philology, 93.1 (1996), 42-63
• Moss, David Grant, ‘A Queen for Whose Time? Elizabeth I as Icon for the Twentieth Century’, Journal of Popular Culture, 39.5 (2006), 796-816
• National Portrait Gallery, ‘Queen Elizabeth I (‘The Ditchley portrait’)’, National Portrait Gallery <http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw02079/Queen-Elizabeth-I-The-Ditchley-portrait> [last accessed 11 September 2017]
• Watkins, Susan, In Public and in Private: Elizabeth I and Her World (London: Thames and Hudson, 1998)

• Ongoing exploration
• Capture of the Madre de Dios
• Ships at the base of the image
• Astrolabe?

• How she is presented
• Presenting Elizabeth I’s power and authority

• Cult of Elizabeth the Great
• Forgiveness of Sir Henry Lee
• Maritime Exploration

Representation of the Queen

• Virgin Queen
• White dress
• Pearls
• Prince or Queen
• Masculine and Feminine

The Queen's Power

• Authority over England
• Larger-than-life
• Divine

Possible Research Uses

Methodological Issues

• Significance of the image
• Example of the Cult of Elizabeth the Great
• How Elizabeth I presents herself
• Prince vs. Queen
• Masculine vs. Feminine
• Virgin
• What does the portrait present about Elizabeth I’s reign?
• Contemporary perspective of her power
• Economics and maritime discovery in England
• The effect of this picture on media representations?

• Clarity of written sections
• Missing parts
• Not indicative of reality
• Wore elaborate dresses for paintings
• Facial features are copied
• Flattering representation

The painter presents her as "a ruler of legendary fame, a visionary figure towering above her realm of England, an image of almost cosmic power".

Bassnett, p.126.

The Ditchley Portrait

Samara Copley