Sovereigns

Hendrik Hondius the Elder
Portrait of Elizabeth I,
Queen of England, France, Ireland & Virginia
1632
posthumous engraving
Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich

Melchior Lorck
Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II
1565
etching and engraving
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Jean Decourt
Portrait of the duc d'Anjou,
later Henri III, King of France
ca. 1570
drawing
Bibliothèque nationale de France

Jean Decourt
Portrait of the duc d'Anjou,
later Henri III, King of France
ca. 1570
oil on panel
Musée Condé, Chantilly

Guillaume Dupré
Louis XIII, King of France
1610
bronze relief medallion
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Renold Elstrack
Equestrian Portrait of Elizabeth Stuart,
future Winter Queen of Bohemia
ca. 1612-13
engraving
British Museum

Renold Elstrack
Marriage Portrait of Elizabeth Stuart,
future Winter Queen of Bohemia
ca. 1613-14
engraving
British Museum

Wolfgang Heimbach
Portrait of Christina, Queen of Sweden
ca. 1660
oil on copper
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig

Hendrick Danckerts
Charles II, by Grace of God King
of Great Britain, France and Ireland
ca. 1660
engraving
Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich

John Bushnell
Bust Portrait of King Charles II
1678
terracotta
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Johann Franck
Woman painting King Charles II with his foot on Ireland
ca. 1680
engraving
(the inscription on the painting is in German)
Royal Collection, Windsor

Jacob Gole
Portrait of Mary II, Queen of Great Britain
ca. 1689-94
mezzotint
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Thomas Frye
Her Most Excellent Majesty Charlotte,
Queen of Great Britain
1762
mezzotint
British Museum

Anonymous Photographer
Queen Victoria
1898
signed presentation photo in original plush frame
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Constance Stuart Larrabee
King George VI in South Africa
1947
gelatin silver print
National Museum of African Art, Washington DC

Bernard Safran
Elizabeth II at age 33
1959
acrylic on panel
(commissioned by Time magazine)
National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC

Bernard Safran
Anne Marie Oldenburg, Queen of Greece
1964
oil on panel
(commissioned by Time magazine)
National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC

from Cyclops

O Nicias, there is no other remedie for love,

With ointing or with sprinkling on, that ever I could prove,

Beside the Muses nine.  This pleasant medsun of the minde

Growes among men, and seems but lite, yet verie hard to finde.

As well I wote you knowe, who are in Phisicke such a leeche,

And of the Muses so belov'd.  The cause of this my speeche

A Cyclops is, who lived heere with us right welthele, 

That ancient Polyphem, when first he loved Galate;

When with a bristled beard, his chin and cheekes first clothed were.

He lov'd her not, with roses, apples, or with curled heare,

But with the Furies rage, al other thinges he little plide.

For often to their fould, from pastures green, without a guide

His sheep returned home, when all the while he singing laie

In honor of his love, and on the shore consumde awaie

From morning until night, sicke of the wound, fast by the hart,

Which mighty Venus gave, and in his liver strucke the dart.

– Theocritus (early 3rd century BC), translated by Anonymous (1588)

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)

That Necklace

Nicolas-Antoine Taunay (publisher)
Représentation exacte du grand collier en brilliants
(Affaire du collier Marie-Antoinette)
ca. 1785
hand-colored engraving
British Museum

Nicolas-Antoine Taunay (publisher)
Représentation exacte du grand collier en brilliants
(Affaire du collier Marie-Antoinette)
ca. 1785
engraving
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

"This print shows a to-scale representation of the diamond necklace central in the so-called 'Affair of the Necklace' which brought scandal upon the French royal family and upon Queen Marie-Antoinette in particular in the years leading up to the French Revolution.  The necklace had initially been commissioned by Louis XV from Parisian jewelers Böhmer et Bassenge for his mistress, Madame du Barry (Jeanne Bécu de Cantigny).  The design for the necklace contained a total of 540 diamonds.  In the event, King Louis XV died before the jewelers could complete the commission.  Left deeply in debt and without a buyer for the extravagant piece, Böhmer et Bassenge offered their creation to the new Queen, Marie-Antoinette, but she declined.  The necklace then became the protagonist in a scheme involving the Cardinal de Rohan (Louis-René-Édouard, prince de Rohan) and his mistress the Comtesse de La Motte (Jeanne de Valois Saint-Rémy).  The Cardinal reopened negotiations with the jewelers, informing them of the Queen's renewed interest, and convinced them that she would pay them for it in installments.  The jewelers accepted this arrangement and handed the necklace over to Rohan, who gave it to his mistress, who then spirited it away.  When the jewelers wrote to Marie-Antoinette to inquire when they would receive payment, the scheme was discovered.  Both Rohan and Comtesse de La Motte were apprehended and put on trial.  They were not the only ones to pay a price, however.  Public opinion turned against the Queen, who was accused of plotting the whole scheme to rid herself of Cardinal de Rohan.  Böhmer et Bassenge were left bankrupt, never receiving payment for the necklace, which itself had disappeared and was believed to have been disassembled.  Nicholas de La Motte, husband of the Comtesse, was shortly caught fencing some of the diamonds in London."  

– from curator's notes at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Albert Guerrin
Collier de la Reine (Marie-Antoinette)
ca. 1960-63
white sapphires, pearls, gold
(replica of original in diamonds, lost since 1785)
Château de Versailles

Aeneas (Blessed by Venus) Encounters Dido

Pietro da Cortona
Venus as Huntress appears to Aeneas
1631
oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre

Sébastien Bourdon
Venus and Aeneas
ca. 1658-62
oil on canvas
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Nicolas Poussin
Venus presenting Arms to Aeneas
1639
oil on canvas
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen

Luca Giordano
Venus presenting Arms to Aeneas
ca. 1680-82
oil on canvas
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Giovanni Francesco Romanelli
Venus pouring Balm on the Wound of Aeneas
before 1650
oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre

Merry-Joseph Blondel
Venus healing Aeneas
before 1853
oil on canvas
Museo del Prado, Madrid

Pier Leone Ghezzi
Purification of Aeneas in the River Numicius, with Venus presiding
ca. 1725
oil on canvas
Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow

Nathaniel Dance-Holland
The Meeting of Dido and Aeneas
ca. 1766
oil on canvas
Tate Gallery

Francesco Solimena
Aeneas at the court of Dido
ca. 1739-41
oil on canvas
Museo di Capodimonte, Naples

Claude Lorrain
View of Carthage with Dido and Aeneas
1676
oil on canvas
Kunsthalle, Hamburg

Dido

Suppose you really do, toward the end, fall away into a sunset which is your own self-ignited pyre? is it any the less a sunset just because you stopped carrying the torch? I must pull myself together tomorrow early, is market dallying and this time I've got something to get rid of, inherited I'd never want. "Life has a way of making everything die." Should I now that the war is over voluntarily about face and shoot things squarely and in the middle to test the steadiness of my rust-covered hand which has been so dependable of late? I do not love hunting or any of the Roman positions, yet foreigners frighten the very shores! Am I too lady luck or nuts?
     Once when the bishop's blague had become a kernel I raced to the nearest theatre "babes in arms" and earned some small relaxation, even though they all said it would ruin the babies' eyes. Would they were beggars these days! if only I weren't feeling sentimental, but how else can you get passionate? and I at least know that that's my devoir. Yes, dear heart, gloriously ruined, lamentably grey, the poor tattered plaything with a heart of whale blubber, is to be in Sydney Australia married to an architect! But this is most heartbreaking of all, for the truly grave is the most objective like a joke: you advance unawares while misery surrounds you on the lips in the bars, and it accepts you as the characteristic sibilance of its voice, hitherto somewhat less divine.
     I could find some rallying ground like pornography or religious exercise, but really, I say to myself, you are too serious a girl for that. The leaves do not wither because it is winter, but because they stay there and know better, and they want what must happen, they are the lying down kind. If, when my cerise muslin sweeps across the agora, I hear no whispers even if they're really echoes, I know they think I'm on my last legs, "She's just bought a new racing car" they say, or "She's using mercurochrome on her nipples." They'd like to think so. I have a stevedore friend who tells everything that goes on in the harbor.
     Well all right. But if this doesn't cost me the supreme purse, my very talent, I'm not the starlet I thought I was. I've been advertising in the Post Office lately. Somebody's got to ruin the queen, my ship's just got to come in.

 – Frank O'Hara (first published – posthumously – in 1970)

Francesco Solimena
Royal Hunt of Dido and Aeneas
ca. 1712
oil on canvas
(preparatory sketch)
Palazzo Buonaccorsi, Macerata

Francesco Solimena
Royal Hunt of Dido and Aeneas
ca. 1712
oil on canvas
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Jean-Bernard Restout
Aeneas and Dido fleeing the Storm
ca. 1772-74
oil on paper, mounted on canvas
(preparatory sketch)
Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Rutilio Manetti
Dido and Aeneas
ca. 1630
oil on canvas
Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Pompeo Batoni
Aeneas abandoning Dido
1747
oil on canvas
private collection