Object Image

The ‘Armada Portrait’ of Elizabeth I

The 'Armada Portrait' of Queen Elizabeth I, three-quarter-length, in a richly gold-embroidered and jewelled dress, her left hand holding a feathered fan, her right resting on a terrestrial globe, an imperial covered crown on the table beside her, with two views of the sea beyond: on the left, the English fleet with the approaching Spanish Armada; on the right, the Armada wrecked by storms on the (mainly Irish) coast. The contrast between calm and storm is a metaphor for the good Protestant government of Elizabeth's England and the despotic Catholic rule of Philip II's Spain.

Credit: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London. Acquired with the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund, Art Fund, L...

c. 1588
Oil on oak panel
1125.0 x 1270.0mm
ZBA7719
Image and text © Royal Museums Greenwich, 2021

Where you'll find this

Queen’s House
Permanent collection

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