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They call Edmonton, the city of festivals. There are over 100 festivals during a year of which over 50 of different events happening in spring and summer. This past Saturday we went to visit one of them - Taste of Edmonton. The weather was great, the atmosphere - wonderful and we have had lots of fun walking around Churchill Square trying different foods offered by many vendors and people watching. I'll be the first to admit I am not a street photographer and I am not very comfortable taking pictures of people without their permission, but I did try to capture some of the spirit of the event. I hope I was somewhat successful...
De Havilland DH83 Fox Moth ZK-AGM G-CIPJ
Fox Moth was a passenger aircraft. Manufacturer, de Havilland. Designer, A.E. Hagg. First flight, 29 January 1932. Introduction, 1932. Number built, 154. The DH.83 Fox Moth was a successful small biplane passenger aircraft from the 1930s
Photo taken 13th Aug 2021 at the Imperial War Museum Duxford Cambridgeshire UK
BAG_3528
Waldringfield in Suffolk UK. After a successful mornings shooting on the foreshore i was on my way back to the carpark and did the classic look back to check if i was missing a comp and BOOM! this little beauty presented itself. This is my kind of comp as it has the perfect collection of elements. foreground, middle ground and background with a literal visual path through the whole image. The image did take a few hours in PS to remove all the leaf clutter and twig distraction all down the path and area to the bottom right but without doing so the image looked messy and too busy on the eye to work.
Another successful expedition to Cornwall with my personal guide! Massive thanks to Max for showing me places I'd never have found by myself.
Forgive me if I don't credit who found which insect in every case! However I will say that this is one of Max's finds, and a species I'd previously looked for but never actually found. The slightly plumper and more colourful female is on the left.
The thrift clearwing is categorised as Nationally Scarce B.
After struggling up the Acton grade, CN L53331-28 passes through Guelph where Metrolinx is currently rebuilding the second track. 2296, 8864, 5775 lead this 123 car train.
glacier bay NP and preserve, AK usa
was it too early in the season or the day ?
was the fog too thick ?
for whatever reason, the expected NP ranger never made it to the ship to give a running commentary or to guide the captain to a glacier ...
and eureka ! with no local expertise - a glacier !
arriving from kobe japan, via yokohama, hakodate, kushiro, kodiak AK & ketchikan AK
destination vancouver british columbia canada
You can see the way the flake has broken off on this piece in a kind of cone shape, following the shock wave applied to the rock.
That's a hard hammer in John's hand. Those are generally pebbles. Soft hammers are made of bone.
My flint knapping photos were taken on a day course with John and Val Lord. They have a website here:
John has also written a book that's very useful as a beginner:
www.flintknapping.co.uk/shop.html
And John's son Will is also an expert in flint knapping and excellent teacher. He also runs courses, and will teach hide working, prehistoric jewellery making, bow-making and so forth as well.
© Susannah Relf All Rights Reserved
Unauthorized use or reproduction for any reason is prohibited
Excerpt from www2.hamilton.ca:
Artist Daniel Davelaar’s sculpture the Dressmakers Manikin with Drapery has been selected as the Public Art piece for East Kiwanis Place at the corner of Ottawa Street and Edinburgh Avenue.
The three-meter (10’-0”) high sculpture is modelled on a local seamstress’ manikin draped in cloth in such a way as to recall classical Roman and Greek sculpture. The artwork is to be carved from a single block of Mountain Rose Granite.
Mr. Davelaar’s work was selected from a group of 11 submissions through a four stage juried public art selection process outlined as follows: • Stage 1: A pass/fail technical review by two experts. • Stage 2: A review of creativity, appropriateness and experience by a five person jury, consisting of members of the community. • Stages 3 and 4: Those successful in Stages 1 and 2 prepared a maquette (miniature) of their proposed work for a second jury review and for public review and comment.
The maquette (miniature) was placed on display for public comment during August and September 2008 on Ottawa Street and at the Mustard Festival. Fifty-five questionnaires were completed by the public. Eighty-nine percent noted that they felt the proposed sculpture reflected the attributes of the Ottawa Street neighbourhood very well.
This mature bald eagle has just successfully grabbed a fish out of the Susquehanna river (note the tail fins rising behind the body) with its right claw and will be on its way to a private lunch. It was not challenged for the fish like some eagles were. I love the column of water behind it still rising where the eagle had snatched the fish from the water.
Taken 13 November 2016 at Conowingo Dam in Maryland.
After a successful catch the kingfisher emerges beak first and flies back to its perch. It will then wriggle the fish about until it is held by its tail, before bashing it against the perch several times to kill it. This makes the fish easier to swallow and in the case of sticklebacks relaxes the spines to stop it become trapped in the kingfisher’s throat
The kingfisher then turns the fish around to position it lengthways and swallows it headfirst.
Tyrone Wright (aka Rone) is one of Australia’s best known and most successful street artists. His new exhibition, “Time”, includes 12 installations inside one of Melbourne’s most iconic buildings, the Flinders St railway station.
The building has been empty for some time, and Rone has transformed a forgotten wing, including the magnificent ballroom into an amazing exhibition taking visitors back to post-World War II Melbourne.
The building used to be used for many different purposes, classrooms, offices, industry and these and much more are remembered in the exhibition.
The exhibition employed a core team of 5-10 people, with up to 120 Victorian creatives and professionals working on the project. Rone has worked on the project for three years. Callum Preston was set builder director and Carly Spooner the set decorator.
Of course the installations are adorned with Rone’s world famous ethereal portraits of his muse, model Teresa Oman, and these combine with meticulous details in the sets, along with the ambience created by original music that makes this a magnificent experience.
I visited for the second time on Monday so there will be a few more photos over the next week.
This is a close-up from the arch in The Ballroom.
“Time” is on show until April 23, 2023, more information can be found here rone.art
first successful shot with the lomo tunnelvision lens. its a tricky one but it could just prove fun...
This Cheetah Mum now can serve a delicious breakfast to her Cub. One of them is always on alert. Now this is a moment they are themselves vulnerable to other hunters such as Lions. This was a really rare sighting
The first commercially successful railway line in Germany was inaugurated on Dec. 12, 1835. Two locomotives of the Patentee Class (No. 118 and 148) had been acquired from Robert Stephenson in Newcastle. The first was named "Adler", the second one "Pfeil".
The coaches were built by several local companies, to the standard of horse-drawn carriages. Not all traffic on the line was to be handled by new-fangled steam locomotives, horses seemed to be a more reliable option at first.
The engines were scrapped in the mid-1850ies, after having completed more than 32.000 runs with 2 1/2 milion passengers.
Expedition 48 Commander Jeff Williams (shown here) and Flight Engineer Kate Rubins of NASA successfully installed the first of two international docking adapters (IDAs) Friday Aug. 19, 2016, during a five hour and 58-minute spacewalk. The IDAs will be used for the future arrivals of Boeing and SpaceX commercial crew spacecraft in development under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi assisted the duo from inside the station, while all three cleaned up the Quest airlock afterward where they stowed their spacesuits and tools.
On Sept. 1, the two NASA astronauts will spacewalk outside the International Space Station for the second time in less than two weeks. Working on the port side of the orbiting complex’s backbone, or truss, Williams and Rubins will retract a thermal radiator that is part of the station’s cooling system. They’ll also tighten struts on a solar array joint, and install the first of several enhanced high-definition television cameras that will be used to monitor activities outside the station, including the comings and goings of visiting cargo and crew vehicles.
For more information about the International Space Station, click here.
After a long overnight trip from Kaskinen, the broken class Dr12 diesel electric locomotive number 2216 has returned back to Haapamäki thanks to the little, but brave class Dv16 diesel locomotive number 2038. At Haapamäki mood is relaxing and relieving, as soon the train returns back to the museum depot and the successful rescue operation come to an end.
They are mother natures precision, high-performance machine, designed to do one job and do it with incredible skill and effectiveness. It can accelerate faster than a Ferrari, tearing up the ground from 0-75 mph in just 3 seconds, and comes with a self-grown paint-job that would make the fanciest muscle car blush with envy. That’s right, we’re talking about the Cheetah, and International Cheetah Day celebrates these incredible animals while raising awareness about their threat of extinction.
As founder of the Cheetah Conservation Fund, Dr. Laurie Marker chose to commemorate Khayam, a cheetah she raised at the Wildlife Safari she ran in Oregon, by establishing December 4th as International Cheetah Day in his memory.
Khayam served as part of an important experiment determining whether or not captive Cheetahs can be taught to hunt and live in the wild on their own again. After a trip to Namibia, the experiment was proven successful, though she and Khayam returned home after observing local hunters eliminating wild cheetahs as a threat to their livelihood.
There are only 8,000 of these creatures left in the wild today, a number that leaves them as Africa’s most endangered feline. Cheetah’s hold their position as world’s fastest land mammal thanks to some tricks of evolution that have perfectly adapted them for high speed. Their full running speed is so fast that their feet only touch the ground once every 6-7 meters, and their muscular tail helps to steer them like a rudder at these high speeds. Needless to say, once a cheetah has prey in their sites, there’s no running away.
Malaika and her two sons were photographed on a game drive feasting on a young wildebeest which she had just hunted in the Maasai Mara Game Reserve, Kenya.
Having successfully navigated the 3% descent into town a U789 train of loaded taconite pellets from Minntac is pulling into the Two Harbors receiving yard at the south end of CN's North Division Iron Range Subdivision mainline. The standard three pack of ex CNW C40-8s have a train of modern CN era ore cars (over 1000 of which were acquired between 2009 and 2018) on the historic former Duluth, and Iron Range side of the railroad which saw its first load of ore arrive from Soudan mine in 1884. Immediately behind the locomotives is the dumping shed that feeds a conveyor that can send pellets to the stockpile or to the pockets on the south side of Dock 2. This system was installed in 1978 when half the tracks were removed from the massive 1916 built dock. Beyond that above the tree tops can be seen Agate Bay and the cold blue water 'of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee.'
This is a region that should need no introduction to even the most casual fan as the Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway is in a word legendary. I won't bore you with pages of history as I couldn't do the road or region justice anyway. It simply needs to be experienced for oneself. But I will direct you to two resources. Absolutely check out the fabulous historical information here: www.missabe.com/
And for a fabulously well written overview of modern CN operations find yourself a copy of the April 2023 edition of Railfan and Railroad right now! shop.whiteriverproductions.com/products/rfr-202304
Two Harbors, Minnesota
Wednesday May 10, 2023
All Rights Reserved ©
Herring Gull with Starfish, Vancouver BC Canada
Member of the Flickr Bird Brigade
Activists for birds and wildlife
Wise people of a strong country!
The 34th day of the full-scale invasion of Russia and our full-scale defense is coming to an end. Successful defense.
I'm sure you saw the news today that the Russian military command allegedly decided to "reduce hostilities in the directions of Kyiv and Chernihiv."
Well, the same can be said about Chornobaivka - as if the Russian aviation simply decided to fly less, and the Russian military vehicles - to drive less. I am grateful to all our defenders, to all those who ensure the defense of Kyiv. It is their brave and effective actions that force the enemy to retreat in this direction.
However, we should not lose vigilance. The situation has not become easier. The scale of the challenges has not diminished. The Russian army still has significant potential to continue attacks against our state. They still have a lot of equipment and enough people completely deprived of rights whom they can send to the cauldron of war.
Therefore, we stay alert and do not reduce our defense efforts. Both in the north of our state and in all other regions of Ukraine, where Russian troops have temporarily entered. The defense of Ukraine is the number one task now, and everything else is derived from it.
It is on this basis that I consider the messages on the negotiation process, which is underway at various levels with representatives of the Russian Federation.
The enemy is still in our territory. The shelling of our cities continues. Mariupol is blocked. Missile and air strikes do not stop. This is the reality. These are the facts.
That is why the Armed Forces of Ukraine, our intelligence and all those who have joined the defense of the state are the only guarantee of our survival today. As a nation. As a state.
The guarantee that works.
Yes, we can call positive the signals we hear from the negotiating platform. But these signals do not silence the explosion of Russian shells.
Of course, we see all the risks. Of course, we see no reason to trust the words of certain representatives of a state that continues to fight for our destruction. Ukrainians are not naive people. Ukrainians have already learned during these 34 days of invasion and over the past eight years of the war in Donbas that only a concrete result can be trusted. The facts - if they change on our land.
Of course, Ukraine is willing to negotiate and will continue the negotiation process. To the extent that really depends on us. We expect to get the result. There must be real security for us, for our state, for sovereignty, for our people. Russian troops must leave the occupied territories. Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity must be guaranteed. There can be no compromise on sovereignty and our territorial integrity. And there will not be any.
These are clear principles. This is a clear vision of the possible outcome. And to those on social networks who perceive words as if they are facts already, I want to remind one thing: we live in a democratic state and fight for our freedom. For freedom for our people.
Therefore, any decisions that are important for all our people must be made not by one person or a group of people with any political views, but by all our people. The wise people of Ukraine.
And certain countries should not even expect that certain negotiations will facilitate the lifting of sanctions against the Russian Federation. The question of sanctions cannot even be raised until the war is over, until we get back what’s ours and until we restore justice.
On the contrary, sanctions must be strengthened. Intensified weekly. And they must be effective. Not just for headlines in the media that sanctions have been imposed, but for real peace. Real.
And to ensure this, a team of Ukrainian and international experts has already begun work to assess the effectiveness of the sanctions imposed on Russia. On the Ukrainian side, this area is coordinated by Head of the President's Office Andriy Yermak, and on the international side by Michael McFaul.
During the day the rescue operation was ongoing in Mykolaiv. The debris of the building of the regional administration destroyed by Russian missile strikes was dismantled. As of now, 8 people have been reported killed and 30 wounded. It is likely that these are not final figures.
The Russian troops hit Mykolaiv very insidiously. At a time when people came to their workplaces in the morning. Thank God, most of those in the building managed to evacuate when they heard an air alarm.
This one more act of the Russian so-called denazification of Mykolaiv took place in the morning after the anniversary of liberation of the city from Nazi invaders. Mykolaiv residents remember the day of March 28, 1944. And they see who the Russian troops trying to capture their city now look like.
I spoke about Mykolaiv today in my address to the Danish Parliament and the Danish people. I invited the society of this country to take part in the reconstruction of the city and the region after the war. In the framework of our program of Ukraine's reconstruction, we involve partner states, leading companies and the best specialists in order to guarantee the speed and quality of the reconstruction of our state.
As I was told, this proposal was very positively received in Denmark.
There is also important news from our government officials. As of today, the new functionality of our "Diia" state service will be available. As I promised, the state will compensate for the loss of a house or apartment as a result of hostilities. Every citizen of ours can already submit an application in "Diia".
Applications are already available in the mobile application. You need to update the app to see this new service. And in a week it will be available offline - in the centers of administrative services. In itself, the functionality in "Diia" is quite convenient. But all the necessary details will still be clarified by our government.
The main thing is that the state will compensate for every meter of lost real estate.
In addition, government officials today expanded the program to help those institutions that support IDPs from the areas of hostilities.
Another important decision was to allocate 426 million hryvnias to pay the miners' salaries.
Traditionally, I signed several important decrees before delivering this evening address. The first is about awarding communications service employees. I am sincerely grateful to everyone who provides the fundamental basis of our lives. Who gives us connection.
By the way, on the day of the beginning of the Russian invasion, the first missile strike in the JFO area was made against them.
12 people were awarded state awards, 4 - posthumously.
The second signed decree is on awarding 126 servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, 34 of them - posthumously.
We will always be grateful to each of our defenders for the defense of our state in the Ukrainian Patriotic War against Russia.
May the memory of everyone who gave life for Ukraine live forever!
Glory to each of our heroes!
Glory to Ukraine!
Successful strike! This is the next frame of the juvenile Great Blue Heron hunting posted recently.
Pillar Point
Half Moon Bay, CA
Metroline VP549 (LK04CVL) on London Overground rail replacement duties arrives at Willesden Junction having run from Gunnersbury.
This is the second run out for the Willesden VPs on rail replacement services this year, on both occasions the use of a VP-class vehicle was planned. With the vehicle type almost extinct from Londin services, I have tried treat these London workhorses to a little bit of adventurous fun in their last days.
Phillip Mould:
This image, and those generated around it, represent one of the most successful sovereign statements of English history. It was painted under the aegis of the Queen’s own official Serjeant painter, George Gower, in the late 1580s, the decade in which she finally defeated the Spanish threat, and assured her place as one of England’s most successful and popular monarchs. The portrait was owned by Edward Drewe MP, one of Elizabeth’s ablest lawyers, and has remained in his family ever since. A family legend suggests that the portrait was the gift of Elizabeth herself. It is in part through such portraits that the mystique and power of Elizabeth I was conveyed in her day. As such it is not merely a portrait of a monarch, but a symbolic statement of national supremacy.
George Gower was Elizabeth’s Serjeant Painter from 1581 until his death in 1596. He was also a ‘gentleman’, being the grandson of Sir John Gower of Stettenham, Yorkshire. This was not only unusual for the time (hitherto, artists were effectively ranked as servants), but reveals the increasing status – and importance – of portraiture in sixteenth century England. There is little documentary evidence on Gower’s career, but there is no doubt that he was one of the leading English artists of his generation. His documented portraits, such as those of Sir Thomas and Lady Kytson (1573 Tate Gallery, London) show that he commanded the patronage of the important and wealthy from an early age, while his self-portrait (1579, the first known example by an English artist on such a scale) gives a clear indication of the bold characterization with which he depicted his subjects.
Gower’s technique and style is distinct, and perfectly suited to the display of power, and conspicuous monarchical grandeur seen here. His use of strong light on the head enables his subject’s face to stand out from the rest of the painting, and was perfectly suited to Elizabeth’s personal wish to avoid any shadows across her face. His reluctance to rely too heavily on drawing is made up by strong flesh tones and subtle shadows, so that the face is rendered with precision and power, aided by bold features such as the well-delineated eyes. The unmistakably warm and dry palette has the happy effect of seeming to depict the Queen in the heavy make-up on which she increasingly came to rely. In this example, the overall effect is one of power rather than beauty – but such is Gower’s skill that our focus is held unmistakably by Elizabeth’s face and strong gaze, despite the rich and bright details of her luxurious costume.
There are elsewhere in the portrait signs of a master’s touch. The subtle but noticeable pink tones in the ruff under Elizabeth’s chin skillfully illustrates the reflection of her face in the white lace, giving the ruff a three-dimensional effect so often lacking in sixteenth century portraiture. The deft modeling (with even the hint of veins) in the long and elegant hands of which Elizabeth was so proud is superb, while the folds and lace on the golden silk of her sleeves is redolent of Holbein’s supreme skill in depicting the rich quality of Royal costumes.
As with all portraits of the Queen, there comes the question of the level of her personal involvement. Of course, she did not sit for the many contemporary portraits of her that survive. Instead, artists would have followed patterns of her face, and then either have imagined her costume, or in some cases have painted the actual garment itself. The patterns would have been widely-circulated, and the Queen’s likeness then either traced onto a panel or drawn freehand. Surviving examples of patterns are rare, but those of Bishop John Fisher and Sir Henry Sidney can be found in the National Portrait Gallery, as can one previously believed to show Elizabeth herself.
Which ‘pattern’, therefore, is the Drewe portrait based on? Sir Roy Strong’s catalogue of 1963, Portraits of Queen Elizabeth I, and subsequent Gloriana, The Portraits of Elizabeth I were vital works in dating and attributing the many (invariably unsigned) portraits. According to Strong’s categorization, the Drewe portrait is based on the ‘Darnley’ face pattern, after a painting dated c. 1575 once owned by the Earls of Darnley, and now in the National Portrait Gallery attributed to Federico Zuccaro, an Italian landscape and religious painter to whom the Queen sat for a drawing in May 1575.[1] The Darnley pattern, Strong points out, does not change until the ‘Armada pattern’ is developed, apparently by Gower, c.1588.
And yet, such categorization carries with it the disappointing notion that all portraits of the Queen between c.1575 and 1588 are derivatives, completed at a distance from Elizabeth herself. This clearly cannot be the case with the Drewe portrait. Though Elizabeth is shown in a similar (if reversed) profile, she is unquestionably a different woman to that in the Darnley portrait: noticeably hierarchical, sepulchral in characterization, perhaps reflecting the progression of her historical achievements. It seems implausible that Gower, the Queen’s Serjeant Painter, would have been content to follow a pattern. Rather, he may instead have felt constrained by the dictates of Royal iconography to follow an approved pose – just as Henry VIII was invariably portrayed full-face.
It is to the Queen herself that we should seek an explanation for the repetitive nature of her portraits. From the note of her conversation with Nicholas Hilliard in c.1572 it seems she resolved that her portraits should have no “shadowe at all”[2]. After all, Royal portraits were primarily symbols of power combined with obsequious flattery, not simple likenesses. Considerations of deference (and by the 1580s her fading beauty) further forbade any attempt at realism. And artist’s had to operate within an accepted Royal iconography that began in the fifteenth century. It is certain, however, that Gower’s official position, and the fact that he was a gentleman by birth, would have guaranteed him access to the Queen. The Drewe portrait, with its delicately observed facial contours and expressive, piercing eyes, is a world away from the pallid and formulaic pattern portraits of Elizabeth, reflecting an authority derived from one who had access to the royal presence.
The provenance of this portrait is of interest, and helps confirm the attribution to George Gower. It has traditionally hung in the Grange, the Devon seat of the Drewe family, since its construction by Edward Drewe in the 1590s. Drewe was one of the ablest lawyers of the 16th Century. After a spell at Oxford (while apparently a teenager) he began to practice law at the Inner Temple in 1560. He was called to the Bar in 1574. From then he rose rapidly through the legal ranks; a Justice of the Peace in 1579, and a Member of Parliament (for Lyme Regis) in 1584. He must then have been well-known to the Queen and Privy Council, for in 1588 he was amongst those sharp legal minds, along with Francis Bacon, called to draft Government legislation. The letter makes flattering reading;
“Her Majestie… hath made especiall choice of you, upon knowledge of your sinceritie and sufficiencie in that behalfe, to proceede to the consideracion what statutes in your opinion were requisite to be either established or perfected for the better…
We bid you very hertely farewll.”[3]
In 1589 he was appointed a Serjeant-at-law, and became more familiar to the key members of Elizabeth’s Government. Perhaps his most powerful ally was Francis Russell, the second Earl of Bedford. He corresponded regularly with William Cecil, Lord Burghley. And in 1593 he is recorded as making a speech before the Queen when introducing the Lord Mayor of London to Court. Drewe’s correspondence with the Privy Council typically revolved around interrogations of suspects such as Jesuit spies, often in the Tower of London, and he became an important part of the security apparatus first set-up by Francis Walsingham. One case involved the hapless Yorke and Williams, who, “when confronted together, Yorke swore that they took the sacrament to kill the Queen, and that Williams had wished his sword in her belly.”[4] By 1593 Drewe held the prestigious parliamentary seat of the City of London, and in 1596 he was made a Queen’s Serjeant, and a judge on the Northern circuit. He died suddenly, of ‘gaol fever’, in 1598.
Drewe’s central role in the legal apparatus of the Government helps confirm an attribution to George Gower as the artist of this portrait. Gower had been appointed, in 1581, as the Queen’s Serjeant Painter. In 1584 an attempt was made to make Gower solely responsible for portraits of the Queen, a move that reinforced the government’s wish to maintain control of the Queen’s image. Some twenty years earlier, the Privy Council, at the Queen’s behest, had also attempted a similar measure in reaction to the increasing number of debased images of Elizabeth in circulation. And in 1596, the Privy Council ordered that public officers should aid Gower in seeking out and destroying those unofficial images which caused the Queen “great offence”[5].
The Council’s failure, and that of Gower in the 1580s, is belied by the profusion of awkward and unsatisfactory images of the Queen which survive to this day. Nevertheless, a man of Drewe’s public position would have been the most unlikely person to either commission or own in the 1580s and 90s a portrait of the Queen that did not come from the Serjeant Painter’s ‘official’ workshop. Furthermore, in 1593 Drewe made a speech in Parliament against foreign workers in London, advocating support for “our countrymen” over charity to “strangers”, which sentiments would appear to rule out his patronage of any Flemish or Italian artist.[6] Finally, it may also be worth noting the connection between Drewe and the Bedford family, who commissioned the Armada portrait from Gower in 1588.
The Queen’s jewelry is worth noting here, and may assist in the precise dating of this portrait. Here, the jewelry worn by the Queen (aside from that embroidered into her costume) is surprisingly simple – only a double row of pearls. This is identical to the jewelry worn in the Darnley portrait dated c.1575, as is the chain of pearls and jewels around her waist. And such a combination can again be found in other portraits by Gower of the 1580s, Cornelius Ketel’s ‘Sieve’ portrait c.1580-3, and Marcus Gheerearts the Elder’s c.1585 full length. Furthermore, the lack of certain jewelry again suggests a date in the 1580s, for when Leicester died in 1588 he bequeathed to his 2most dear and gracious Sovereign whose creature under God I have been”[7] an extraordinarily large and elaborate jewel of emeralds, with a rope of 600 pearls. Elizabeth, who locked herself in her room on hearing Leicester’s demise, is shown wearing his gift in the Armada portraits of post c.1588, and other later variants – but not here.
Notes;
[1] Zuccaro had traveled to England apparently at the behest of Lord Leicester. Though some have assumed his purpose was to paint the Queen, it is possible that he had been summoned by Leicester to decorate the interior of Kenilworth Castle (now ruined), before the Queen was due to stay there in July 1575. The exquisite chalk and pencil drawing of the Queen by Zuccaro survives (British Museum), along with a pendant of Leicester. However, there seems little connection between the drawing, either in likeness or style, to the ‘Darnley’ portrait in the NPG.
[2] Strong, loc.cit., p16
[3] Letter from Privy Council to Drewe 27th December 1588, in Acts of the Privy Council of England 1588. Official Publications 1897 Vol XVI
[4] Calendar of State Papers (Domestic) Elizabeth I, 1591-94, August 28th 1594
[5] Strong, loc.cit., p14
[6] Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, citing House of Commons Journal
[7] In Public and Private, Elizabeth I and her world, Susan Watkins, London 1998