The Queen Elizabeth I “Armada Portrait” is a distinct indicator of her monarchical rule in 16th century England. She is portrayed sitting in a lavish gown, adorned in pearls (a symbol of divine chastity and virginity), in front of two tableaus illustrating the destruction of the Spanish Armada by the winds of the Channel. Her hand rests casually on a globe, re-affirming her image as one of the most powerful monarchs of her time and portraying her as goddess-like, specifically in the wake of the Spanish Armada’s destruction which she was believed, by some, to have willed through faith. Additionally, the placement of her hand on the globe is subtle yet significant. Her fingers rest over the Americas, a region which had been greatly colonized by the Spanish by that time. She is sending a somewhat implicit message of her intentions to expand her breadth over the globe to the Americas. This era was seen as the beginning of wide-scale Imperialism in modern Europe, one of the defining political aspects of the continent, and its impact on the world as a whole, for centuries to come. Above all, this grand style of portraiture serves a significant purpose in fashioning the monarchs and rulers depicted as supreme leaders of their states or kingdoms. We see this development continue in a cultural and political context as rulers are continued to be depicted as charismatic leaders who are, alone, capable of leading their state, and will additionally see challenges to these claims with the development of more comprehensive governments where many more players have a role in governing and the legitimacy of monarchs may begin to be questioned.
National Portrait Gallery via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Elizabeth_I_(Armada_Portrait).jpg