Queens

Ancient Egyptian Culture
Head of Queen Nefertiti
1353-1337 BC
limestone
(fragment of statue)
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Konrad Witz
The Queen of Sheba with Solomon
ca. 1435
oil on panel
Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

attributed to Benedetto Bordone
Queen Eleuterilyda receiving Poliphilus
1499
woodcut with letterpress
(text by Colonna Francesco from the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili
published in Venice by Aldus Manutius)
Hamburger Kunsthalle

Michael Sittow
Queen Isabella of Castille
ca. 1503-1504
oil on panel
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

attributed to Gian Cristoforo Romano
Caterina Cornaro, Queen of Cyprus
ca. 1505
marble
Detroit Institute of Arts

François Clouet
Mary, Queen of Scots (when Queen of France)
ca. 1549
drawing
Yale University Art Gallery

Alonso Sánchez Coello
Elisabeth of Valois, Queen of Spain
ca. 1560
oil on canvas
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Alonso Sánchez Coello
Anne of Austria, Queen of Spain
1571
oil on canvas
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Antonis Mor
Anne of Austria, Queen of Spain
1570
oil on canvas
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Claude Lorrain
Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba
1648
drawing
(compositional study for painting)
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Luca Giordano
The Queen of Sheba before Solomon
1697
oil on copper
Staatsgalerie im Schloss Johannisburg, Aschaffenburg

Giambettino Cignaroli
Alexander the Great
contemplating the Corpse of the Queen of Persia
ca. 1760-70
oil on canvas
National Gallery of Slovenia, Ljubljana

Francesco Liani
Maria Carolina, Queen of Naples
ca. 1770-72
oil on canvas
Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest

Lorens Pasch the Younger
Louisa Ulrica, Queen of Sweden
ca. 1770-80
oil on canvas
Sinebrychoff Art Museum, Helsinki

Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun
Marie-Antoinette, Queen of France
1778
oil on canvas
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Joseph Paelinck
Frederica Wilhelmina,
Queen of the Netherlands
1817
oil on canvas
Rhode Island School of Design, Providence

While these thus in and out had circled Roome,
Looke what the lightning blasted, Aruns takes
And it inters with murmurs dolorous, 
And cals the place Bidentall: on the Altar
He laies a ne're-yoakt Bull, and powers downe wine,
Then crams salt levin on his crooked knife;
The beast long struggled, as being like to prove

An aukward sacrifice, but by the hornes
The quick priest pull'd him on his knees and slew him:

No vaine sprung out but from the yawning gash,
In steed of red bloud wallowed venemous gore.
These direful signes made Aruns stand amaz'd,
And searching farther for the gods displeasure,
The very cullor scard him; a dead blacknesse
Ranne through the bloud, that turn'd it all to gelly,
And stain'd the bowels with darke loathsome spots:
The liver swell'd with filth, and every vaine
Did threaten horror from the host of Cæsar;
A small thin skinne contain'd the vital parts,
The heart stird not, and from the gaping liver
Squis'd matter; through the cal, the intralls pearde,
And which (aie me) ever pretendeth ill,
At that bunch where the liver is, appear'd
A knob of flesh, whereof one halfe did looke
Dead, and discoulour'd; th'other leane and thinne.
By these he seeing what myschiefes must ensure,

Cride out, O gods! I tremble to unfould
What you intend, great Jove is now displeas'd,
And in the brest of this slaine Bull are crept,
Th'infernall powers.

– from the First Book of Lucan, translated by Christopher Marlowe (published 1600)