Please click here for an article from the Guardian explaining how Sir Walter Raleigh used messages in portraits to show his loyalty to the Queen. They can be found in the Elizabeth I and her people exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery discussed in the post below.
The article states “the sailor frequently needed to ladle on the praise, since his years as a courtier were spent both in and out of favour and in prison in the Tower of London. In 1588 his star was riding high, a hero of the battles against the Spanish armada, and his magnificent cloak, covered in a dazzling sun-ray of pearls, would already have been understood as an emblem of the Virgin Queen.”
Read on and see what you think.
Mr Kydd.
