Queen Elizabeth I ('The Ditchley portrait')

Queen Elizabeth I ('The Ditchley portrait')

by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger
oil on canvas, circa 1592
95 in. x 60 in. (2413 mm x 1524 mm)
Bequeathed by Viscount Dillon, 1932
Primary Collection
NPG 2561

Sitter

Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603), Reigned 1558-1603. Sitter associated with 117 portraits.

Artist

Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger (1561 or 1562-1636). Artist associated with 27 portraits.

This Portrait

Known as the 'Ditchley Portrait', this painting was produced for Sir Henry Lee who had been the Queen's Champion from 1559-90. It probably commemorates an elaborate symbolic entertainment which Lee organised for the Queen in September 1592, and which may have been held in the grounds of Lee's house at Ditchley, near Oxford, or at the nearby palace at Woodstock.. After his retirement in 1590 Lee lived at Ditchley with his mistress Anne Vavasour. The entertainment marked the Queen's forgiveness of Lee for becoming a 'stranger lady's thrall'. Elizabeth stands on the globe of the world, with her feet on Oxfordshire. The portrait shows Elizabeth standing on the globe of the world, with her feet on Oxfordshire. The stormy sky, the clouds parting to reveal sunshine, and the inscriptions on the painting, make it plain that the portrait's symbolic theme is forgiveness. The three fragmentary Latin inscriptions can be interpreted as: (left) 'She gives and does not expect'; (right) 'She can but does not take revenge', and (bottom right) 'In giving back she increases (?)'. The sonnet (right), perhaps composed by Lee, though fragmentary, can mostly be reconstructed. Its subject is the sun, symbol of the monarch.

Related Works

NPG D17098: Queen Elizabeth I ()

Linked Publications

Sound Guide
Tudor Portraits Resource Pack, p. 23
The National Portrait Gallery, 1997, p. 47
Clare Gittings, The National Portrait Gallery Book of Elizabeth I, 2006, p. 25
Cooper, John, Great Britons: The Great Debate, 2002, p. 35
Cooper, John, Visitor's Guide, 2000, p. 23
Cooper, John, A Guide to the National Portrait Gallery, 2009, p. 11
Gittings, Clare, The National Portrait Gallery Book of The Tudors, 2006, p. 28
John Cooper, National Portrait Gallery Visitor's Guide, 2006, p. 22
MacLeod, Catharine, Tudor Portraits in the National Portrait Gallery collection, 1996, p. 23
Nicholl, Charles, Insights: Shakespeare and His Contemporaries, 2005, p. 4
Piper, David, The English Face, 1992, p. 40
Ribeiro, Aileen, The Gallery of Fashion, 2000, p. 11
Saumarez Smith, Charles, The National Portrait Gallery: an illustrated guide, 2000, p. 47
Saumarez Smith, Charles, The National Portrait Gallery, 1997, p. 47
Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 200
Strong, Roy, Tudor and Jacobean Portraits, 1969, p. 104
Walker, Richard, Miniatures: 300 years of the English miniature illustrated from the collections of the National Portrait Gallery, 1998, p. 7
Williamson, David, The National Portrait Gallery's History of the Kings and Queens of England, 1998, p. 102

Subjects & Themes

Crowns and tiaras
Fans
Gloves
Jewellery
Maps
Words and pictures