[MR] History Blog: Save This Painting

[Garth Groff via Atlantia]

Noble Friends,

Lady Sophie sent me this with a request to repost. This painting is 
really important, and needs to be conserved and saved for the nation.

Yours Aye,


Lord Mungo Napier, That Crazy Scot


    Help save the Drake Armada Portrait of Elizabeth I
    <http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/42329>

by livius drusus <http://www.thehistoryblog.com/wpTest/?author=1>


The Art Fund and Royal Museums Greenwich have launched a campaign to buy 
the iconic Armada Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I 
<https://www.savearmada.org/> before it's put up for public auction. The 
Art Fund has contributed £1 million ($1,461,000) and Royal Museums 
Greenwich £400,000 ($584,000), its entire annual acquisitions budget, 
but that's just the tip of the iceberg. They need to raise another £8.6 
million ($12,564,000) to secure the portrait for its asking price of £10 
million or else it will be sold to the highest bidder.

The oil-on-panel portrait was painted in around 1590 to commemorate the 
scrappy English navy's defeat of the mighty Spanish Armada in 1588 and 
has become an iconic representation of Queen Elizabeth. It has appeared 
in textbooks and inspired countless film and television portrayals of 
the Virgin Queen. Some scholars consider it the definitive 
representation of the English Renaissance.

Queen Elizabeth stands with her elegant right hand covering North 
America -- Spain of course claimed much of South America -- on a globe. 
Next to her shoulder is a crown representing her rule of a new global 
empire, and her dress, hair and jewelry are festooned with pearls, 
symbols of virginity and the sea. The fabric of her gown is embroidered 
with suns, symbols of power and enlightenment. Behind her are two scenes 
from the defeat of the Spanish Armada: on the left English ships in the 
foreground sail towards the larger Spanish fleet, on the ship Spanish 
ships are buffeted onto the rocky coast of Ireland or Scotland by what 
was termed the "Protestant Wind," the breath of God Himself weighing in 
on the side of England and Protestantism.

<http://www.thehistoryblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/National-Portrait-Gallery-Armada-Portrait.jpeg>The 
portrait was unusual in its time for the horizontal orientation, and was 
immediately popular enough to inspire multiple versions. This is one of 
three versions of the portrait to survive. One of them is in the 
National Portrait Gallery 
<http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw02077/Queen-Elizabeth-I?LinkID=mp01452&search=sas&sText=elizabeth+i&OConly=true&role=sit&rNo=8>. 
It was trimmed on both sides to make it a vertical portrait and the 
English and Spanish ships in the background, the very parts of the 
paintings that give it its meaning, were overpainted in black. 
Conservators discovered the overpainting and removed it in the 1970s. 
The other version is at Woburn Abbey 
<http://www.woburnabbey.co.uk/abbey/art-and-the-collection/the-armada-portrait/> 
and is thankfully still intact.

The artist is unknown. Previously the National Portrait Gallery and 
Woburn Abbey versions were attributed to the Queen's Serjeant Painter 
George Gower, but the NPG now believes all three portraits were painted 
by different hands and have changed the attribution of their version to 
an unknown artist of the British school.

The only version of the portrait still in private hands was once owned 
by, and likely was commissioned by, Sir Francis Drake which it makes it 
the most important of the three because of its close association with 
one of the heroes of the events depicted. It has been in his family ever 
since. It currently resides at Shardeloes in Buckinghamshire, the estate 
of the Tyrwhitt-Drake family. They're ready to sell, and if the campaign 
is successful, the portrait will belong to a public institution for the 
first time in 425 years.

    Royal Museums Greenwich would be the perfect home for this iconic
    painting, with its fine 16th- and 17th-century collections, maritime
    setting and world-renowned conservation expertise. If our campaign
    is successful, the portrait will hang at the newly renovated Queen's
    House, on the site of the original Greenwich Palace, where Elizabeth
    I was born. Plans are underway for a national programme to secure
    the widest possible audience. The painting is in a fragile condition
    and bringing it into public ownership now will secure its long-term
    future, conservation and display.

<http://www.thehistoryblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Woburn-Abbey-version-of-Armada-Portrait-of-Elizabeth-I.jpg>It's 
in dire need of that conservation expertise. Its background scenes of 
the victory over the Armada were also overpainted at one point, and the 
whole work is yellowed with missing flecks of paint. Half a millennium 
in drafty stately homes hasn't done it any favors either. The Royal 
Museums Greenwich have the facilities to ensure a proper climate 
controlled environment that is ideal for conservation of the oil paint 
and oak panels.

All donations will be matched pound for pound, so whatever you can 
contribute is actually worth double. Click here to donate 
<https://www.savearmada.org/donate>.

<https://youtu.be/Jk7jkW6WAxo&w=430>