1. Choose two portraits of the same monarch.  (Postcards of many of these portraits are available in the museum shop.)  Compare and contrast  the way the ruler is portrayed in each portrait.  Consider such things as background setting, artifacts, facial images, individual posture and stance, artistic style, and symbolism.  What do such things reveal about the history and culture of the era?
 
 
 

2.  Choose two portraits of monarchs from different dynasties (e.g., Plantagenet, Lancastrian, Yorkist, Tudor, Stuart, Georgian, etc.).  Compare and contrast the portrayal of each monarch.  Consider such things as background setting, artifacts, facial images, individual posture and stance, artistic style, and symbolism.  What images of monarchy seem to remain constant over time?  What aspects of portraiture seem to vary the most?
 

Suggested Readings:

Strong, Roy C.  Artists of the Tudor Court: The Portrait Miniature Rediscovered, 1520-1620.  London: Victoria & Albert Museum, 1983.

Strong, Roy C.  The English Icon: Elizabethan & Jacobean Portraiture. New York: Pantheon Books, 1969.

Strong, Roy C.  Gloriana: The Portraits of Queen Elizabeth I. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1987.

Strong, Roy C.  Holbein and Henry VIII. New Haven: Yale University Press c1967

Williamson, David.  The Kings and Queens of England.  London: National Portrait Gallery, 1998.
 

RETURN TO HIS 499 SYLLABUS
RETURN TO HIS 599 SYLLABUS
RETURN TO MCCANDLESS HOMEPAGE