Symbolism in Portraiture

Elizabethan Portraiture

The Elizabethans used to fill their portraits with a huge amount of symbolism and meanings. This was to try to show there personally through these detailed and very cleverly thought out portraits. Everything in these portraits are painted for a reason. One of the Elizabethan portraits I have looked at as an example is The Rainbow Portrait. This portrait is full of bright color’s and objects.  Elizabeth Is standing in front of a dark archway holding a rainbow above which is inscribed the Latin motto “NON SINE SOLE IRIS”: no rainbow without a sun. Then with her other hand she lightly touches the hem of her ornate cloak, painted partly in gold leaf and decorated with human eyes and ears. One of its sleeves is prominently decorated with a jeweled serpent. The queen also wears a bodice decorated with flowers, three pearl necklaces, several bracelets, a brooch in the form of a cross and a fantastically ornate head-dress. An open standing ruff, a gauzy transparent veil and a ballooning diaphanous lace-embroidered collar of such extent it makes her resemble some strange hybrid of human being and winged insect completes her outfit.

The rainbow were meant to symbolize peace, the serpent which has been embroidered on her sleeve is to represent wisdom and with the ruby is trying to get the point across to the audience that her emotions are controlled by her wisdom. You then have the symbolism from the eyes and the ears that are covering the gown, this is to show that she hears and sees all. Which I think is a very powerful message, which she is trying to get across to her country and also other countries. I think its almost saying she’s going to be one step ahead of everyone else.

After looking into depth about some Elizabethan portraits and how different objects, symbols and colors mean different things I thought I would look up modern portraits and see if things have changed through time.

I looked at a portrait which taken by a photographer which is unknown, but the portrait was of Queen Victoria in the year of her Diamond Jubilee. Around this time her popularity was severely threatened because she didn’t want to be in the public eye after Prince Albert’s death. So this portrait of her was extremely important. This portrait helped to emphasis Victoria’s role as monarch and to ensure the public were rightfully proud of her long reign.

She was positioned in this photo to be upright and in a regal pose because this shows power, they also made it look like she was deep in thought, which could be reflecting on her long reign. Another main point she is making is that she’s all dressed in black, which is the colour she wore all the time after Albert’s death. She also has a very straight face which doesn’t show much emotion quite like the Elizabethan portraits this could show that she is very serious about her role and to show determination to govern Britain to the best of her ability.

Even today they are showing symbolism of power and wealth through images of celebrities, for example the Kardashaian family portrait shows just that. All the men are dressed in suits this immediately screams power and wealth; I think it also shows that they are in control of there self and everything that is going on around them. Another point in that one of the women in the portrait is wearing a suit as well as the men, this could show that she has a lot of power and control over other people including men. There is also a hint of green in this image being drape over the woman’s shoulders, green is also symbolic of money this could be them trying to get it across that they are very wealthy, the color green is also on fur which means its going to be expensive piece of clothing.

This portrait shouts wealth within this family; just by the way the family are all stood very upright and chins up. I think this may show that maybe they think they are better than everyone else; saying they are more superior or a higher class than everyone else.

There is a lot of symbolism in portraits these days that we don’t even notice. I am going to attempt to do my own self portrait showing things that represent me.