The new paperback edition of Roy Strong’s popular introduction to Elizabethan portraiture

Written  for the general reader,  Roy Strong’s popular introduction to Elizabethan portraiture  synthesizes scholarship and research on this subject into a concise introduction to the Elizabethan aesthetic. Strong surveysthe entirety of Elizabeth I’s reign from the Procession Picture to the Rainbow Portrait (1600-1602). A range of social aspects of Elizabethan portraiture are explored, such as patronage, symbolic self-fashioning, Elizabethan pageantry and melancholic humor. Strong reveals the Elizabethan approach to portraiture, while demonstrating a new way to look at these paintings. From celebrated portraits of the Queen and paintings of knights and courtiers, to works depicting an aspiring ‘middle class’, Strong presents a detailed and authoritative examination of one of the most fascinating periods of British art.

What explains our obsession with country houses – from the National Trust to Downton Abbey?

Why do we still dream of a place in the country?

In this delightul book Roy Strong explores the definition of Englishness. Celebrating our literature, music, art, gardening and drama, Strong identifies those icons and traditions that still speak to us – it is a vision of England that is inclusive and relevant for everybody living in the country today.