print
- Museum number
- 1849,0315.2
- Title
- Object: Elizabetha Angliae et Hiberniae Reginae &c
- Description
-
Portrait of Queen Elizabeth seated on horseback cross-saddle, in armour holding a sword, with a naked female lablled 'Treuth' holding one end of a lance of which the other is held by Elizabeth; under her feet a dragon and in the background the Armada and the army at Tilbury. c.1625
Engraving
- Production date
- 1625-1640
- Dimensions
-
Height: 272 millimetres
-
Width: 296 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Not known in a state before the Stent address.
The horseshoe shape of the Armada associated with the grouping of troops on the shore bears a strong resemblance to those details in Samuel Ward's "Double Deliverance" of 1621, see 1847,0723.11.
(Comment from Dr John Warrick, University of Birmingham, June 2011)
Elizabeth holds out the lance to rescue Truth from the cave. This iconography is standard to two traditions: (1) the Harrowing of Hell, sometimes titled 'Christ in Limbo', where Jesus extends his cross staff to Adam in the act of rescuing the ancient just from Limbo
Patrum (pictures of which are easily obtained), and (2) 'Veritas filia temporis', whose debt to the Harrowing can be seen in William Marshall's 'A goodly prymer in englyshe, 1535'.
The Harrowing and the Veritas filia temporis are attached to Elizabeth through her coronation procession, where both of these allegorical themes were used. Cecil's portrait shows Elizabeth not as the passive and ceremonial recipient of the lance, but rather an active monarch (probably here presented in relation to England's religious Reformation).
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
2002 Feb-May, Ann Arbor, Michigan Univ Mus of Art, Women Who Ruled
2002 Sep-Dec, Boston, Davis Museum, Women Who Ruled...
- Acquisition date
- 1849
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1849,0315.2
