[MR] portrait

[Karen]

Krista asked:

> Does anybody know where I can get an image of this portrait?  I want
> to see the beads!
> 
> Isabella da Venezia
> Glass beads were new, and were made in Venice, still a center for
> fine glasswork. They were very valuable and were often combined with
> precious metals. The Oxford portrait of Elizabeth shows her wearing
> ropes of black, brown, and gold Venetian beads combined with gold
> beads.

(I wasn't sure if other people might want to know the answer, so I
figured I ought to reply to the list.)

I think the portrait that's mentioned above is the same one reproduced
in Plate III of "Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd" by Janet Arnold,
from Jesus College at Oxford University.  It is discussed on pages
40-42, with black and white photos of the portrait in figures 66 and
67.  Arnold specifically discusses the necklace on page 41:

"In the Jesus College portrait, Elizabeth wears a long string of beads
which is twisted twice round her neck and then falls to below the waist
(Fig. 67).  The beads may be made of glass, like those in the
collection at Schloss Ambras, near Innsbruck in the Tyrol; the spotted
variety have gold mounts.  An intricately designed gold jewel enamelled
in white, red, and black, set with a large diamond and pendent pearl,
is attached to the beads at the neck with a little red ribbon.  Another
six strings of beads hang from the shoulders.  There are five sorts of
beads -- tiny black ones which may be jet, larger reddish brown and
pearly ones, which may be glass, with both round and spiral beads of
gold, enamelled black."

This is not the only portrait of Elizabeth at Jesus College.  Another
distinctly different portrait is displayed behind the head table at the
dining hall there -- it's the portrait that the girl is pointing to at
http://jcr.jesus.ox.ac.uk/admissions/rushers/bigRush10.JPG -- and
appears in a black & white photo in figure 61 of "Queen Elizabeth's
Wardrobe Unlock'd."  I don't think this is the portrait that your
reference refers to, though, since they do not seem to be "ropes of
black, brown, and gold Venetian beads combined with gold beads."

(Elizabeth chartered Jesus College in 1571; both of these portraits
date to around 1590.)

Karen