This is a now somewhat outdated (1977) study of three famous portraits and three pageants of the Elizabethan era. The writing is markedly different from today's scholarship, which makes it much easier to read, an in many cases more enjoyable. While Strong does sometimes digress into long and boring (for those not studying the era specifically) details of family connections, overall this book provides absolutely fascinating and nuanced insights into the late-Tudor mindset and political climate. My two favourite things are how well Strong understands and explains the Elizabethans' ways of thinking (and how very different they are from our own) and how willing he is to say 'I don't know'. As opposed to most recent studies I come across, which seek to explain every detail through the particular lens they see their subject matter through, Strong often admits that some things cannot be explained through either an insufficient amount of evidence or insufficient understanding. He also does a fantastic job of illustrating foreign ways of thinking through his analysis of art, and is not afraid of being incredibly passionate about his subject matter (I'm actually surprised that his wife did not divorce him on grounds of adultery with Elizabeth I). Highly recommended if you want a solid introduction to Elizabethan values, ideas and ways of thinking, will totally revolutionise the way you look at objects or painting from the era. My museum visits have not been the same since.
Quote:
The strength of the Elizabethan image lay in its capacity to be read and re-read many ways and never to present a single outright statement which left no room for manoeuvre, as did its successors in the new style... Each painting achieves its effect by using a multiplicity of images to construct for its subject a three-dimensional world in which the third dimension is that of time rather than that of space; and this is a habit of mind essentially medieval, but perfectly adapted to the needs of a post-medieval age.
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