Elizabeth I
  137mm (5.5") high x 85mm (3.25") wide  

ELIZABETH I
Queen of England 1533-1603

Based on an amalgam of three portraits: by ?, Anon. & Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger this represents Elizabeth in familiar pose: magnificent, statuesque and bejewelled- Queen of all she surveyed. Variations on this theme were painted throughout her long reign and the story goes that so vain did she become, especially in later years when her hair and teeth had fallen out and the white lead makeup was applied to her physiognomy by means of a spatula, that she assigned a 'Surveyor of Portraits' to supply a template of her idealised face to aspiring artists and to destroy any painting (and possibly painter) getting too close to the truth. Certainly a representational painter like Holbein would not have got far in the 'Court of Good Queen Bes'.

Hans Holbein drew with lifelike accuracy many of the King's Court; the very people who were promoted through the ranks to achieve high office, and subsequent decapitation. Holbein himself survived the rigours of the Royal household to die of natural causes- of The Black Death in 1543.

 

 These castings are designed, sculpted and manufactured in England, using resin-bonded marble, bronze and Cotswold stone. Modern moulding techniques faithfully reproduce the intricate and painstaking work of the sculptor whilst giving the appearance of real carved stone or sculpted terracotta. The resin sculptures are weatherproof, the plaques having a hole drilled in the back for easy hanging