Gloriana: The Portraits of Queen Elizabeth I [Hardcover]

Roy Strong (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1987

To examine the portraits of Elizabeth I is to witness the creation of the legend of the Virgin Queen, of Gloriana and her burgeoning empire. The history of the portraiture is that of the deliberate manufacture of an image powerful enough to hold together a people divided by both rigid hierarchy and religious belief. When Elizabeth came to the throne in 1558, her subjects had an all-too-vivid memory of military defeat and religious turmoil. Restoring stability to the kingdom involved the image of the Queen herself—over the years, she was transmuted from an elegant aristocrat into a cosmic vision. In Gloriana, Roy Strong provides a richly detailed analysis of all the major portraits.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“A work of immense beauty and precision in which the text completely lives up to the many and admirable reproductions… a real triumph of scholarship.” -- Punch --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From the Back Cover

“A work of immense beauty and precision in which the text completely lives up to the many and admirable reproductions… a real triumph of scholarship.” -- Punch --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 180 pages
• Publisher: Thames & Hudson; 2nd edition (March 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0500250987
• ISBN-13: 978-0500250983
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,790,003 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #96 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Historical > British > Elizabeth I

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent pictures, but limited scope, January 18, 2007

By 

M. Anderson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gloriana: The Portraits of Queen Elizabeth I (Pimlico) (Paperback)

I really liked this book! I enjoy reading about and researching the Tudors (by researching, I mean reading existing research). I have a book "All the Queen's Men: Elizabeth and her Courtiers" by Neville Williams. I loved the reproductions of paintings in that book, and so tracked down "Gloriana" to see and compare as many pictures of Elizabeth as I could. I must say the pictures are great, and plentiful. The text is well written too. It describes the art and explains the purpose of and evolution of the stylised portraits of Elizabeth. It's not the book's fault, but it was missing some things I hoped to find, as follows: few pictures of those close to Elizabeth (I shouldn't probably have expected this, but I like to look for family resemblances, and the looks of her suitors!); little text description of Elizabeth (based on the author's reseach, I hoped he'd tell us whether her eyes were blue or brown, how tall she was etc. Hard to tell from the art - the colors and proportions vary); and finally, some portraits that are described in the text are not illustrated. Not many, but I wanted to see more. That being said, you can't go wrong with this book if you want to study the portraits. I am very pleased to have this as part of my little Tudor library! (My copy is paperback, I have not seen the hardback.)

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars All hail Gloriana! The Portraits of Queen Elizabeth, February 18, 2009

By 

Betty L. Sullivan "Betty Who Loves Elizabeth" (San Francisco) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gloriana: The Portraits of Queen Elizabeth I (Pimlico) (Paperback)

Love this book. The scholarship. The comprehensive overview and chronology. Wish there were more in the color section, but hey, this book is a gift to anyone who wants to find out how the image of Elizabeth I evolved and why. You can just feel Her Majesty's strategy unveiled as you go along. All hail Gloriana!