Tudor Portraits Our Visit to the National Museum. We visited the museum at Cathays Park in Cardiff to see the Tudor portraits and find out what they can tell us about Tudor life.
This photograph shows Emily posing as Katheryn of Berain in the famous portrait by Adriaen van Cronenburgh. (see article about Katheryn of Berain for more information) This is a painting commissioned by Elizabeth I to show the rule of the Tudors. It is owned by the National Museum but spends much of the time at Sudeley Castle in Gloucester. We were very lucky to be able to see it in Cardiff.
We learned that this is Elizabeth’s version of the Tudors, she totally ignored Henry VII and concentrated on her father, Henry VIII. Her brother Edward VI kneels- perhaps to show he never became an adult, he looks like a mini version of his father. The painting shows Mary I and Philip of Spain standing with Mars the god of War. This is because Elizabeth believed Mary’s reign and marriage to Philip was a recipe for conflict. Elizabeth herself stands next to the goddesses of Peace and Plenty. This shows that her reign was peaceful and plentiful for her subjects.
This is a portrait of a rich and important family that were called the Mansells. You can tell they are important because they have big ruffs around their necks and they are wearing black clothes. This also shows how rich they were because black and red were very expensive colours. The ruff also shows how rich the family was because the bigger the ruff the more expensive and the more important they were. You can also see that Mrs Mansell is holding a marigold to represent her daughter who died young of natural causes, in another portrait she is holding the rose and her daughter was standing in front of her. In the portrait you can see that their clothes are richly embroidered with gold thread and jewels.
Our visit to the museum taught us that;
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