#hatfield house

[thesixthduke]

The Rainbow portrait, Hatfield House

[vintage-treasures]

The Rainbow Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I, Oil on Canvas (c. 1600–1602) A portrait of Queen Elizabeth I painted near the end of her reign. The work is rich with allegorical symbolism, depicting the Queen with impossibly youthful features. She holds a rainbow, which bears the Latin inscription Non sine sole iris ("No rainbow without the sun"), a declaration that only the Queen's wisdom ensures peace.

Her cloak is embroidered with eyes and ears, suggesting her all-seeing and all-hearing authority, and a jeweled serpent is wrapped around her arm, a symbol of wisdom and power. The work is typically attributed to Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger or Isaac Oliver. Loc. Hatfield House, Hertfordshire, UK. Dim. 127 cm H x 99.1 cm W (50 x 39 in.).

[edwardian-girl-next-door]

Hatfield House, Hertfordshire, UK

cr: happiness_behind_the_lens

[henk-heijmans]

Soldiers and nurses lost in the maze at Hatfield House, Hertfordshire, England, 1940 - by F. Carassale, Italian

[courseyoulovemeyoudontknowme]

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016, Burr Steers)

29/09/2024

[candlelit-acedamia]

[twofacedgods]

Hatfield House

Here is a country mansion tucked away into the green woods and whitewashed pathways of Hertfordshire. It is a confection of gilded ceilings and brocade curtains, of stained glass and chequerboard floors and wood-panelled walls; a pastiche of styles: Jacobean, Elizabethan, Tudor: there is a bedroom with pistachio green walls and canary yellow drapes styled after Chinoiserie; the gold-leaved ceilings of the long gallery are inspired of Venice; the old palace that sits besides is a prime example of medieval red brickwork from centuries past.

In former days that palace was the childhood home of Elizabeth I, and though it hosted all of Henry VIII’s children for a time, and was passed then down the Salisbury line along with the rest of the estate, it is Elizabeth that Hatfield is known best for. Each room carries its Elizabethan relics; ciphered letters, books, tapestries, but most famous of all—on the far side of the Marble Hall—is the Rainbow Portrait. 

Tudor paintings are rich with symbolism, and the portraits of Elizabeth I are textbook to the subject. The Rainbow Portrait is one such archetypal painting. In it a serpent coils around Elizabeth’s arm in a symbol of wisdom. The pearls strung around her neck symbolise virginity, for she was known as the virgin queen, as she would not marry and cede her throne to her husband king. Her gown is embroidered with eyes and ears—she sees all and hears all, in her kingdom—and though she was near seventy when this was painted, she is depicted with preternatural youth. In her hand she holds a rainbow, inscribed non sine sole iris: ‘without the sun there is no rainbow’, a message of peace and prosperity, though that to me seems a little more abstract an interpretation. 

June 2022

[peacefulandcozy]

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