The Execution of Lady Jane Grey is so lovely and evocative...even if it's not entirely historically accurate, this painting is what made me fall in love with her story.
https://www.nationalgalle...ecution-of-lady-jane-greyI love the Armada Portraits of Queen Elizabeth I...there is some serious shade she is throwing at Philip II in them! Not only with the images of the destruction of the armada, or her hand resting so casually yet possessively on the globe. Pearls were a symbol of chastity and purity, and it's delightfully savage that the Virgin Queen who rejected Philip II's proposal of marriage has a portrait commissioned where she is draped in pearls, with a very strategically placed pearl as well! And the use of mermaids to show that she, too, lured men to their deaths on the high sea.
https://www.rmg.co.uk/whats-on/faces-of-a-queenGreat finds, Cordelia!
The first made me very sad, and the artist captured the pathos very well.
I never knew why QEI wore all those pearls in portraits. Now I do (and yikes about the Presque Zizi pearl placement!).
