Tudor Queen Eliz I 'Rainbow Portrait' Restored - Symbols, Engimatic - Back at Hatfield Hs: BBC 🌈

- 'Rainbow Portrait back after 'meticulous' conservation,' BBC News, Sept. 15, 2024. - Edit.
Photo: Hatfield House said the Rainbow Portrait is 'one of the most enigmatic and celebrated representations of Queen Elizabeth I'

- The Rainbow Portrait, Queen Elizabeth I, Hatfield House. Elizabeth holds the rainbow in her right hand (3 mins, *2021).
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A portrait of Elizabeth I has returned to the wall of a stately home after more than a year of meticulous conservation and study. The Rainbow Portrait is believed to have been initially exhibited in Hatfield House, Hertfordshire, when it was built in 1611.

It depicts the Virgin Queen clutching a rainbow in place of the more traditional sceptre common in royal portraits, a spokesperson for the estate said.

Vannis Jones Rahi, head of archives and collections, said: "It is probably the most iconic piece in our collections and the focal point of the Marble Hall so its loss was certainly felt during conservation – the House feels complete once again."

It is thought to be the last portrait painted of the queen during her lifetime, or very shortly after her death in 1603. The portrait was removed in 2022 to be shown in two exhibitions in the USA, before it was taken to the Courtauld Institute of Art in June 2023.

The "meticulous conservation" process, carried out by Nicole Ryder, involved an entire clean, with minor losses corrected - before it was X-rayed and certain pigments were analysed...
- More + Photos of symbols on the gown,
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5yprrjg7qeo
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- Hatfield House, built 1611, North of London
.. The house is a prime example of Jacobean architecture. The estate includes extensive grounds and surviving parts of an earlier palace. Queen Elizabeth's Oak is said the be the place that Elizabeth I was informed she had become queen...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatfield_House
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- Hertfordshire, UK ..In Tudor times, Hatfield House was often frequented by Queen Elizabeth I. Stuart King James I used the locale for hunting and facilitated the construction of a waterway, the New River, supplying drinking water to London. As London grew, Hertfordshire became conveniently close to the English capital; much of the area was owned by the nobility and aristocracy, this patronage helped to boost the local economy. The greatest boost to Hertfordshire came during the Industrial Revolution, after which the population rose dramatically...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hertfordshire
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- Biography, Elizabeth I, Britannica
Elizabeth I (b. Sept. 7, 1533, Greenwich, near London, England—died March 24, 1603, Richmond, Surrey) was the queen of England (1558–1603) during a period, often called the Elizabethan Age, when England asserted itself vigorously as a major European power in politics, commerce, and the arts. Also known as: Good Queen Bess, The Virgin Queen.

Although her small kingdom was threatened by grave internal divisions, Elizabeth’s blend of shrewdness, courage, and majestic self-display inspired ardent expressions of loyalty and helped unify the nation against foreign enemies. The adulation bestowed upon her both in her lifetime and in the ensuing centuries was not altogether a spontaneous effusion. It was the result of a carefully crafted, brilliantly executed campaign in which the queen fashioned herself as the glittering symbol of the nation’s destiny.

This political symbolism, common to monarchies, had more substance than usual, for the queen was by no means a mere figurehead. While she did not wield the absolute power of which Renaissance rulers dreamed, she tenaciously upheld her authority to make critical decisions and to set the central policies of both state and church. The latter half of the 16th c. in England is justly called the Elizabethan Age: rarely has the collective life of a whole era been given so distinctively personal a stamp...
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Elizabeth-I
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- House of Tudor, English Monarchs
House of Tudor, an English royal dynasty of Welsh origin, which gave 5 sovereigns to England: Henry VII (reigned 1485–1509); his son, Henry VIII (1509–47); followed by Henry VIII’s three children, Edward VI (1547–53), Mary I (1553–58), and Elizabeth I (1558–1603). The origins of the Tudors can be traced to the 13th century, but the family’s dynastic fortunes were established by Owen Tudor (c. 1400–61), a Welsh adventurer who took service with Kings Henry V and Henry VI and fought on the Lancastrian side in the Wars of the Roses; he was beheaded after the Yorkist victory at Mortimer’s Cross (1461)...
https://www.britannica.com/topic/House-of-Tudor