Image: Illuminated membrane, with portrait of Elizabeth, 1572

Description: Illuminated initial membrane, with portrait of Elizabeth I, Court of King's Bench: Coram Rege Roll (Easter Term, 1572). The King's Bench was the senior common law court until 1875, dealing with crimninal offences. The decorative initial P was the "Placita" (plea) put before the queen. The portraits were commissioned by court officials from artists and are unique, though they came to follow a standard design after 1584. This example, in which the queen wears a red cap, was executed by the same artist as that for Michaelmas 1571. Art historian Erna Auerbach speculated that "the unusual absence of the crown suggests a painter who was not accustomed to paint the picture of the Queen within the initial of a legal document"; she added that it is difficult to connect the two portraits with other well-known portraits of the queen. (Reference: Erna Auerbach, Tudor Artists: A Study of Painters in the Royal Service and of Portraiture on Illuminated Documents from the Accession of Henry VIII to the Death of Elizabeth I, London: Athlone Press, 1954, pp. 123–24.)
Title: Illuminated membrane, with portrait of Elizabeth, 1572
Credit: David Loades, Elizabeth I: The Golden Reign of Gloriana, London: National Archives, 2003, ISBN 1903365430.
Author: Uploaded by qp10qp.
Usage Terms: Public domain
License: Public domain
Attribution Required?: No