Cult of Elizabeth: Elizabethan Portraiture and Pageantry - Hardcover

Strong, Roy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0520058402 ISBN 13: 9780520058408

Publisher: University of California Press, 1987

Synopsis

No other woman in world history has been of such compulsive interest as Elizabeth Tudor. While the rest of the 16th-century Europe was subject to the bloodshed of religious war, Tudor peace brought England its great flowering of the arts. Central to that flowering was the enigmatic legend of the Queen herself, a myth deliberately created and sustained over four decades by public spectacle and courtly chivalry, by private sonnet and official oration.

About this title

About the Author:

Sir Roy Strong is well-known as an historian and garden writer, lecturer, critic, columnist and regular contributor to both radio and television. He was Director of the National Portrait Gallery from 1967-73 and of the V&A from 1974-87. In 1980 he was awarded the prestigious Shakespeare Prize by the FVS Foundation of Hamburg in recognition of his contribution to the arts in the UK. He has published a number of highly acclaimed books and his recent publications include THE STORY OF BRITAIN, THE SPIRIT OF BRITAIN, A COUNTRY LIFE, FEAST, CORONATION, THE LASKETT and his own diaries. He lives in Herefordshire.

From Kirkus Reviews:

Among the manifold lessons history may teach is the skillful use of public relations—as used, for example, in the court of Elizabeth I. Four centuries ago, the sovereign’s flaks and spinmeisters did a job, unmatched since, in the promotion of the cult of Gloriana (i.e., Elizabeth), celebrated as the maiden ruler for some 45 years during her life (and a long time thereafter). No longer would the Catholic Virgin Mary reign in England; the Protestant Virgin Queen would be venerated in her place. British art historian Strong’s (Elizabeth R, 1971, etc.) study, first published in Britain a generation ago and now available in the US as an elegant paperback, elucidates Elizabethan propaganda as it was practiced through the masterful use of poesy, pictures, and pageants—all designed to enhance the image of the Tudor queen. Familiar Elizabethan pictures are parsed to fix the scene and time. First, the depiction of the social event of 1600 in Peake’s Procession Picture is used by Strong to distinguish and describe various influential nobles who are shown accompanying Her Majesty. Studying Hilliard’s emblematic Young Man Amongst Roses, he identifies the romantic youth who sports the nascent mustache as none other than Essex himself. Then Sir Henry Unton’s Memorial Picture is deconstructed to sketch the life of a representative courtier. The brief guide to the world of Gloriana continues with descriptions of fêtes and pageants. Accession Day festivities, commemorating Her Majesty’s achievement of the throne, were marked by bells, bonfires, bombast, and tournaments. Masques and jousts and parades by the Garter Knights enhanced the secular mythology of majestic chivalry. Puissant PR was indeed at work, but maybe the Age of Elizabeth was, in its way, quite some time after all. Surely it was a time as remarkable and as bizarre as our own.Elizabeth was complex and her character often obscure. Her cult was a deliberate creation, says Strong, and his presentation is convincing, scholarly, and sophisticated. Knowledge of Latin helpful, but not essential. (91 b&w illustrations, seen) -- Copyright © 2000 Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Publication date: 1987
• ISBN 10: 0520058402
• ISBN 13: 9780520058408
• Binding: Hardcover