Portrait with a rainbow of Queen Elizabeth I

When you first look at an old portrait, at first you have aesthetic and emotional feelings. And then you start looking at the details. And in them there are a lot of riddles, encrypted allegories. One has only to take a closer look at the details. Like this portrait of Elizabeth.

This is a painting by the artist Isaac Oliver. Among the great variety of ceremonial well-known and not so famous portraits of Elizabeth, this one stands out for its complexity and ingenuity in symbolism.

The beauty of Elizabeth was recognized as absolute, and in the late 1580s in England, the cult of the queen gradually began to form. This was partly due to the fact that in the minds of the people the virgin queen, who deliberately did not marry and announced that she was "married to the people", was likened to the Virgin Mary and was accepted as the patroness of Protestant England. The Virgin Queen Elizabeth of England loved luxurious outfits. Well, Her Majesty was a true woman.

In 1596, the Privy Council issued an order that all "indecent portraits" of the Queen were to be destroyed, after which the Queen was portrayed as unaffected by age.

"Portrait with a Rainbow" was painted when Elizabeth was 67 years old.
Despite Elizabeth's age, the portrait of the Queen has already become considered almost an icon, so she is young and beautiful on it. Her dress is embroidered with wild English flowers, and her cloak - with eyes and ears, as a visible expression of the fact that the queen sees and hears everything. Pearls symbolize purity. A snake encrusted with precious stones coiled around the left arm, in the mouth - a ruby in the shape of a heart. This is a complex allegory: the snake symbolizes wisdom, the ruby in its mouth is the queen's heart, i.e. the queen's passions are subordinate to her mind. Above the snake is the celestial sphere, also a symbol of wisdom.
In her right hand she holds a rainbow - a symbol of hope, wisdom, faith and peace. The most interesting thing is that the rainbow is for some reason colorless, but the explanation seems to be in the Latin inscription on the picture on the left, "Non sine sole iris" - there is no rainbow without the sun. Queen Elizabeth is the sun, her bright red hair and the intricate beams of her tiered lace collar proclaim that she outshines everyone with her splendor, that she is the link to the divine, and her wisdom and strength will guide the people of England for peace and prosperity.