Elizabethan Era: 2012

During the Elizabethan era the queen Elizabeth was a fashion icon to women and subject of admiration for men. Whereas other countries had Renaissance era - Britain and part of France were absorbed by Elizabethan era. This was the most exciting era in British history in terms of theatre, music, and even sward fighting changed into something more elegant and beautiful.
Amongst classic ideas of this era were Shakespearian poetry, theatrical staging, social high ranking, strong patriotic individualism.

Queen Elizabeth's presence can be seen in all through the Shakespearian sonnets. (I found these refferenses on shakespearesmonument.com). In his sonnets there are many words which signify the Queen:

BEAUTY - she was Venus, goddess of Love and Beauty
DIAN - she was also Diana goddess of the Moon
FAIREST VOTARY - She was the "imperial Vot'ress" of A Midsummer Night's Dream
EVER THE SAME - as she wrote her motto in English
FORTUNE - she was associated with fortune
GODDESS - the divinely ordained goddess on earth
HEAVEN - she was associated with heaven
MARIGOLD - she used it as her flower
MISTRESS - "our Sovereign Mistress"
MOON - Cynthia or Diana, goddess of the Moon
MOTHER - she was wife and mother of her subjects
NATURE - she was associated with nature
PHOENIX - she adopted the phoenix as an emblem
PRINCES - she was the Prince of England
REGION - she was Elizabeth Regina
ROSE - her dynasty of the Tudor Rose began in 1485
VIRGIN QUEEN - she was Virgin Queen, vowing not to marry
WE - she used the royal "we" on official documents

Christopher Marlowe - (the Latin motto on this painting translates: That which nourishes me destroys me)

He was the pioneer of English tragedy and drama. Marlowe was the most daring and inspiring discoverer of the poetic literature. He first guided Shakespeare into the first path and right way of work.
The taming of a Shrew, Shakespeare's comedy has some passages in the play borrowed from Marlowe's works.
This play represents a comic male perception and views of how a woman should behave towards man; she should be courteous, humble, loyal and obedient. Katherina's character shows her disgust for such stereotyping as well as her rebellion against Elizabethan society's gender values. Direct reference of Queen Elizabeth I.
I loved the movie we've watched in the classroom.The video you can find on YouTube: BBC produced (2005) - Shakespeare Retold, The Taming of the Shrew (modern adaptation). Starring: Shirley Henderson as Katherine Minola, and Rufus Sewell as Lord Crick (Petruchio).

But here is short remake on the movie, music by Gwen Stefani, Sweet Escape

The film ends with Kate's "speech of obedience" - which is most criticised part of the film. It comes across for our modern world as blatant affirmation of sexism of woman enslavement and her subservience before the male "lord". Such a great contrast to her true persona. Her mask-like face, strong in her views but fragile in appearance woman. She portrayed and styled as confident and powerful woman. Her hair is styled in a conservative yet messy bun with asymmetrical parting to the side. I found similarly interesting hair parting what Georges Charka (Lebanese haute couture fashion designer) created on his model:

She has big bushy eye brows and lack of make up. Her style is also quite restrained. It consists mostly of knee length skirt and notch collar jacket that expose her neck and strictly heelless ballet pumps. I would not accept her obedience as true summary without thinking about what else this could mean. After all this is a comedy. I believe that Shakespeare was well ahead of his time and Kahterine's end speech could be an elaborate joke and expressing much greater meaning. Besides, ironically Katherine is an indirect portraiture of the Queen Elizabeth who vowed to never get married. Perhaps this is Kathterine's/the Queen's way of playing game in battling men's nature and the nature of marriages. Moreover, I don't think Shakespeare himself believed that this couple equally matched or ever be together.

Music

The most popular song of the Elizabethan Era which was sung to the lower classes to ease their monotonous jobs was Greensleeves. I browsed through www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/elizabethan-songs.htm This particular song believed to have been composed by the King Henry VII for his second wife, and the mother of Queen Elizabeth I, Anne Boleyn:

Here is some part of the song lyrics:

Alas my love, ye do me wrong
to cast me off discurteously:
And I have love you so long,
Delighting in your companie.
Refrain:
Greensleeves was all my joy
Geensleves was all my delight:
Greensleeves was my heart of gold,
And who but my Lady Greensleeves.
***

Back to the modern times

I just recently was inspired by the look of the Queen from "Snow white and the Huntsman":

I realise that this particular Queen is an evil one. Hence the character's attire is appearing dark and mysterious. It has a very high collar (similar to Elizabethan times) which shows her perfectly straight stance and almost chiselled posture. The collar has been layered with black crow's feathers all around it - love this idea.

This styling is really beautifully done. The character's make-up suggests coldness of the wearer.

Silver-grey cool eyes, nude lips and pale yet radiant skin just with hint of blusher on the cheekbones. This gives that pretentious warmth to the skin.

The hair is styled upwards and it has a plait at the front of the head. Her look is immaculate and magnetic.

Similarly, the Queen from "Mirror Mirror":
White Peacock Feather?

I love her styling. Gold dress in particular: long bodice, big round shaped skirt, and very elaborate ruff made out of lace:

Young Lady Holding a Book by Italian School, late 16th century.

I picked this image to analyse it because it caught my attention as I was flicking through the images. I could not find much information about this drawing. But what stopped me in my research for painting to analyse was perfect representation of the Elizabethan era.

This lady is perfectly established the mood of that era. Her fashionable for that time high forehead has a resemblance with a shape of heart. I believe this highlights the romantic atmosphere which was then present.

By analysing this lady's attire I can assume that she is of noble origins or very rich. Luxurious silk dress which was embroiled to add even more interest to her designer dress. Beautiful pearl necklace makes her look indeed very innocent and pure. Moreover, it emphasises and prolongs her heck. Symbolically this mean "stability", as if you can "reach far" with your elongated neck. There is one most obvious symbolic reference within this portrait - tiny book that she holds in her delicate hand. This is probably her personal prayer book which she carry around with her all the time. Similarly to nowadays iPhone she treasures this tiny book. This was probably custom made for her and embossed in gold cover.

Her gaze is so relaxed and calm; it does not seem to me that she she was very talkative during sitting.

I cannot tell whether she is happy or sad. The look on her face makes me change my mind all the time. This kind of look that stopped me in desire to analyse this painting closely.

I am wondering what the painter asked this lady to do, whether it was a set expression in her eyes. Slightly raised straight shaped eyebrows as if she gives indifferent stare. Perhaps she is hiding how she truly feels at that moment.

I can conclude that this lady is young and pure. Her style doesn't suggest any hint on seducing anybody. Quite opposite, she innocent, feminine and elegant. Luckily, I can come up with any story behind this painting! :-)

Contemporary version of the above drawing I picked Princess Diana: