The Face of Queenship

Download or read book The Face of Queenship written by A. Riehl and published by Springer. This book was released on 2010-05-10 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Face of Queenship investigates the aesthetic, political, and gender-related meanings in representations of Elizabeth I by her contemporaries. By attending to eyewitness reports, poetry, portraiture, and discourses on beauty and cosmetics, this book shows how the portrayals of the queen s face register her contemporaries hopes, fears, hatreds, mockeries, rivalries, and awe. In its application of theories of the meaning of the face and its exploration of the early modern representation and interpretation of faces, this study argues that the face was seen as a rhetorical tool and that Elizabeth was a master of using her face to persuade, threaten, or comfort her subjects.