3:11:36 > 3:11:43.
3:11:49 > 3:11:54There are more images of Queen Elizabeth II
3:11:54 > 3:11:56than any other person in history.
3:11:56 > 3:11:59Many of them provoked strong emotions
3:11:59 > 3:12:01when they were first unveiled.
3:12:01 > 3:12:04I thought maybe it was going to ruin my career.
3:12:04 > 3:12:08He was really concentrating on getting this right first time.
3:12:08 > 3:12:13If you'd portrayed Elizabeth I in this way,
3:12:13 > 3:12:16- or Mary Tudor, you would have been executed.- Mmm.
3:12:16 > 3:12:21The royal portrait is one of the most powerful propaganda tools
3:12:21 > 3:12:24a monarch possesses - images of regal power,
3:12:24 > 3:12:27dominance and the divine right to rule.
3:12:27 > 3:12:30That's all very well if you're a king,
3:12:30 > 3:12:33but if you're a queen, it gets a lot more complicated.
3:12:33 > 3:12:37I'm going to discover how artists through history have grappled
3:12:37 > 3:12:40with painting a woman in power and what that tells us
3:12:40 > 3:12:43about our changing attitudes to female monarchy.
3:12:46 > 3:12:49This is where you get excited - every time, again and again -
3:12:49 > 3:12:52to be a historian. Are you excited at the moment?
3:12:52 > 3:12:55I am, but I don't know what I'm going to see.
3:12:55 > 3:13:00How can a queen be a terrifying ruler in an ageing female body?
3:13:00 > 3:13:04When you've seen photos of her, you can't really knock just a few years
3:13:04 > 3:13:09off her age, we can't have this air brushing going on any more.
3:13:09 > 3:13:13And how can she ever command the same respect as a king?
3:13:13 > 3:13:16Look at her. She's a monster with snakes in her hair!
3:13:16 > 3:13:20And her breasts, are long, sagging, withered - like udders.
3:13:20 > 3:13:22Throughout history, artists had to summon
3:13:22 > 3:13:26all their creativity and skill to strike that complex balance
3:13:26 > 3:13:28between femininity and power.
3:13:28 > 3:13:30In order to paint a queen,
3:13:30 > 3:13:34artists had to reinvent the very idea of painting a woman.
3:13:43 > 3:13:45In case you hadn't noticed,
3:13:45 > 3:13:47it's the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.
3:13:47 > 3:13:50To mark it, the National Portrait Gallery's show,
3:13:50 > 3:13:53The Queen: Art & Image, has been touring the country.
3:13:55 > 3:13:58It celebrates the diverse portraiture of the last 60 years.
3:14:00 > 3:14:03The most famous and controversial of them all
3:14:03 > 3:14:05is barely the size of a postcard.
3:14:08 > 3:14:12Freud was famous for never, ever flattering his sitters.
3:14:12 > 3:14:13Here, he really goes out of his way
3:14:13 > 3:14:16to avoid accusations of pandering to royalty.
3:14:16 > 3:14:21We see this burly, quite dumpy, hang-dog monarch, with what appears to be
3:14:21 > 3:14:24a five-o'clock shadow darkening her thick jaw.
3:14:24 > 3:14:27This could be a granny with a perm
3:14:27 > 3:14:29just about to pop out for a pint of milk.
3:14:31 > 3:14:35Any artist who paints the Queen knows that they're vulnerable
3:14:35 > 3:14:38to controversy and criticism.
3:14:38 > 3:14:41What is it that makes her so difficult for artists to paint?
3:14:42 > 3:14:46I've come to the North London suburbs, to meet someone
3:14:46 > 3:14:48with unique insight into the process.
3:14:52 > 3:14:55This is fantastic - immediately to give a sense
3:14:55 > 3:14:58of Lucien Freud's character - who's he with?
3:14:58 > 3:15:01Jacob Rothschild. And it was last summer, so it was quite recent.
3:15:01 > 3:15:06The painter and photographer David Dawson was Lucien Freud's assistant
3:15:06 > 3:15:10for two decades, until the artist's death last year.
3:15:10 > 3:15:13How do you feel when you're leafing through? It must still be...
3:15:13 > 3:15:16It's poignant, yeah, but, it's a good visual diary for me.
3:15:16 > 3:15:20- Damien.- There he is with Damien Hirst.
3:15:20 > 3:15:22Is this the dog you're sitting in front of?
3:15:22 > 3:15:25Yes, look, Eli posing.
3:15:26 > 3:15:27There he is!
3:15:27 > 3:15:29How wonderful!
3:15:31 > 3:15:34In 1999, Freud received some news.
3:15:34 > 3:15:38The Queen wanted to sit for him.
3:15:38 > 3:15:42There's this photo, before the Queen arrived.
3:15:42 > 3:15:46Dawson was given permission to document part of the process,
3:15:46 > 3:15:51which took place over eighteen two-hour sittings.
3:15:51 > 3:15:55For Freud, whose portraits could often take years, it wasn't long.
3:15:55 > 3:15:58Often with Lucien, when he's in the studio he has two or three attempts,
3:15:58 > 3:16:02so he was really concentrating on getting this right first time.
3:16:02 > 3:16:04It all began splendidly.
3:16:04 > 3:16:07He sort of started round the forehead and round her eyes,
3:16:07 > 3:16:10and it sort of... Lucien, when he painted,
3:16:10 > 3:16:13would work in small areas and build outwards.
3:16:13 > 3:16:16- What? He'd make that bit quite finished?- Yeah.
3:16:16 > 3:16:21- And then it would just grow.- It was a very unusual way of painting.- It is!
3:16:21 > 3:16:22It was fascinating to watch.
3:16:22 > 3:16:26But not everything went quite to plan.
3:16:26 > 3:16:29Painting the hair with the crown on top,
3:16:29 > 3:16:33he needed more space in the canvas, so we added another inch and a half,
3:16:33 > 3:16:36or two inches, onto the top of the canvas.
3:16:36 > 3:16:38Originally, she didn't have a diadem at all?
3:16:38 > 3:16:41She always... This was the pose of the Queen
3:16:41 > 3:16:43but in the painting it didn't fit.
3:16:43 > 3:16:47When does it become a royal portrait or just a straight portrait?
3:16:47 > 3:16:50- Without the diadem and the tiara... - It helps.
3:16:50 > 3:16:52I think that's where it becomes fascinating
3:16:52 > 3:16:55because a monarch, a queen, becomes so bound up
3:16:55 > 3:16:59with a nation's identity, she becomes almost symbolic.
3:16:59 > 3:17:03Maybe that's why he needed the extra bit of canvas, with the diadem.
3:17:03 > 3:17:07Those two ideas, that bit, the crown, is the symbolic monarchy bit.
3:17:07 > 3:17:10The bit underneath is the real person.
3:17:10 > 3:17:12Breathing and living like all of us.
3:17:12 > 3:17:14People were critical of this when it came out,
3:17:14 > 3:17:17partly because they felt that this was not a slap in the face,
3:17:17 > 3:17:19but that it was quite brutal.
3:17:19 > 3:17:22Was he conscious of what was being said?
3:17:22 > 3:17:25- Did he care?- He didn't care, I mean he was aware
3:17:25 > 3:17:28that there was certain criticism against this portrait,
3:17:28 > 3:17:32but he felt, you know, he couldn't do anything about that, that's...
3:17:32 > 3:17:34It's what others thought, not what he was thinking.
3:17:34 > 3:17:36And what do you think?
3:17:36 > 3:17:39I think it's a serious, very good painting
3:17:39 > 3:17:43that shows the monarch in the 21st century.
3:17:43 > 3:17:48You know, it's not eight-foot portraiture that's, you know, glorifying
3:17:48 > 3:17:51the great and the good, this is a very real person
3:17:51 > 3:17:56in a unique position, but Lucien's very aware of the history
3:17:56 > 3:17:57that's gone through her family.
3:18:01 > 3:18:05Controversy didn't begin with Elizabeth II.
3:18:05 > 3:18:08When it comes to making portraits, female monarchs offer
3:18:08 > 3:18:11some of the trickiest challenges of all.
3:18:11 > 3:18:13It seems that when it comes to the realm of art,
3:18:13 > 3:18:16royal power and womanhood prove
3:18:16 > 3:18:19an especially explosive and controversial combination.
3:18:21 > 3:18:24The royal portrait as we know it starts 500 years ago,
3:18:24 > 3:18:26not with a queen, but a king.
3:18:29 > 3:18:31In England, at the time of Henry VIII,
3:18:31 > 3:18:34the idea of a regnant queen was unthinkable.
3:18:34 > 3:18:37Women were simply considered unfit to rule.
3:18:41 > 3:18:43Henry VIII didn't have a male heir
3:18:43 > 3:18:46because 20 years of marriage to Catherine of Aragon
3:18:46 > 3:18:49had so far only yielded a daughter, Mary.
3:18:49 > 3:18:51So he was desperate to marry a younger woman,
3:18:51 > 3:18:55but the Pope refused to annul his marriage.
3:18:55 > 3:18:57Henry's dynasty was in crisis.
3:19:01 > 3:19:03His solution was radical.
3:19:04 > 3:19:08Break with Rome and declare himself
3:19:08 > 3:19:12the Supreme Head of the Church of England.
3:19:12 > 3:19:14Henry would replace the Pope.
3:19:15 > 3:19:18It was a shocking and audacious move.
3:19:18 > 3:19:21Henry had to assert his own legitimacy
3:19:21 > 3:19:23as well his authority over the church.
3:19:23 > 3:19:25To do that, he needed to develop some propaganda.
3:19:25 > 3:19:29And his secret weapon was the artist, Hans Holbein.
3:19:32 > 3:19:36By 1536, Holbein had become the king's painter
3:19:36 > 3:19:41and stayed with him for the rest of his life.
3:19:41 > 3:19:45Holbein's most powerful portrait of Henry VIII no longer exists
3:19:45 > 3:19:49because it was destroyed in a fire in 1698.
3:19:49 > 3:19:51But I think it's a testament to the artist's genius
3:19:51 > 3:19:53that, more than 300 years later,
3:19:53 > 3:19:57it lives on as the definitive image of the Tudor king.
3:19:59 > 3:20:02The original Whitehall mural was huge,
3:20:02 > 3:20:05but a small version still exists.
3:20:05 > 3:20:09It's currently here at the Maritime Museum in Greenwich.
3:20:09 > 3:20:11I'm going behind the scenes to try to understand
3:20:11 > 3:20:13the power of the original.
3:20:14 > 3:20:18The portrait was commissioned to celebrate the birth of a son,
3:20:18 > 3:20:21and the assured future of the Tudor dynasty.
3:20:22 > 3:20:27What Holbein has created here is the archetype of kingship.
3:20:27 > 3:20:33Henry VIII is such an exaggerated idea of what the king could be,
3:20:33 > 3:20:37it's almost comic. He isn't anatomically correct.
3:20:37 > 3:20:41Look how broad he is, this big beast of a tyrant of a king.
3:20:41 > 3:20:44And just to ram home that point that he was capable
3:20:44 > 3:20:47of providing an heir for the nation, we see him
3:20:47 > 3:20:50in this sexually quite aggressive pose,
3:20:50 > 3:20:53and his codpiece is frankly enormous.
3:20:53 > 3:20:56And on the right, you can see the woman who's provided him
3:20:56 > 3:20:58with a son, Jane Seymour.
3:20:58 > 3:21:01She's painted in a very English tradition
3:21:01 > 3:21:03of how you present a queen consort.
3:21:03 > 3:21:06She's more passive than Henry, she doesn't look at us.
3:21:06 > 3:21:10Her arms aren't wide apart, instead they're clasped together demurely
3:21:10 > 3:21:14just hovering above her stomach, her womb,
3:21:14 > 3:21:16signalling that she's fulfilled her function
3:21:16 > 3:21:19of providing an heir for the nation.
3:21:19 > 3:21:23And this image would be tremendously influential.
3:21:23 > 3:21:25People who saw it, they're on record
3:21:25 > 3:21:28as having been genuinely terrified.
3:21:28 > 3:21:32For kings in the future, this was the last word in royal portraiture,
3:21:32 > 3:21:35this was the benchmark of how you could summon
3:21:35 > 3:21:38a sense of monarchical authority.
3:21:38 > 3:21:40But that's very different if you're a ruling queen,
3:21:40 > 3:21:42if you're a queen regnant.
3:21:42 > 3:21:46They had to find a new way to present themselves
3:21:46 > 3:21:48that negotiated a middle path
3:21:48 > 3:21:52in between this...and this.
3:21:55 > 3:21:59In 1553, his son, Edward VI, died,
3:21:59 > 3:22:04and Henry's daughter, Mary, became England's first Queen Regnant.
3:22:04 > 3:22:08She needed a royal portrait, but where on earth should she start?
3:22:10 > 3:22:14The answers lie deep in the National Archives,
3:22:14 > 3:22:16hidden in a dusty old box.
3:22:16 > 3:22:20- Check this out.- Is this the one we want? This is really exciting.
3:22:20 > 3:22:22- This is genuinely a good moment, is it?- This is like,
3:22:22 > 3:22:25this is where you get excited every time,
3:22:25 > 3:22:29again and again, to be a historian. Are you excited at the moment?
3:22:29 > 3:22:31I am, but I don't know what I'll see.
3:22:31 > 3:22:32Exactly. That's part of the fun.
3:22:32 > 3:22:35- We're gloved up. - We're gloved up ready to go.
3:22:35 > 3:22:39This is a document dating from 1553.
3:22:39 > 3:22:41So, this isn't a colourful image,
3:22:41 > 3:22:44but it is an image that's incredibly powerful.
3:22:44 > 3:22:48It is one of the first pictorial statements of female monarchy.
3:22:48 > 3:22:50We have here Mary pictured
3:22:50 > 3:22:53with the full regalia
3:22:53 > 3:22:55that a king would have worn.
3:22:55 > 3:22:58The orb and the sceptre, the ermine gown.
3:22:58 > 3:23:01And in many ways, the significance of this picture
3:23:01 > 3:23:03is what's going on from the neck up.
3:23:03 > 3:23:07- And she's got her hair loose, now... - Is that significant?
3:23:07 > 3:23:09It is, you might just think that was a kind of, you know,
3:23:09 > 3:23:12fashion decision she made that morning but, actually,
3:23:12 > 3:23:14it's loaded with significance.
3:23:14 > 3:23:19Now, a queen consort, traditionally would have had their hair down,
3:23:19 > 3:23:21in advance of the coronation
3:23:21 > 3:23:25that they would have with their husband.
3:23:25 > 3:23:27- And what was the significance of that?- Purity.
3:23:27 > 3:23:30Is it supposed to be "I'm a young woman" kind of thing?
3:23:30 > 3:23:34Yeah, in the same way people would wear white bridal gowns now.
3:23:34 > 3:23:37And, of course, the problem for Mary is,
3:23:37 > 3:23:40she's not just queen consort, she's the reigning queen,
3:23:40 > 3:23:42so, what does she do with her hair?
3:23:42 > 3:23:45Does she wear white and, in that sense, is dressed like a bride,
3:23:45 > 3:23:48or does she wear the gown and the ermine,
3:23:48 > 3:23:51the purple velvet gown, that a male monarch would be?
3:23:51 > 3:23:54So in a way, really early on, it's quite crude, the imagery.
3:23:54 > 3:23:56They're saying, "Oh, God, what do we do? We've got a queen.
3:23:56 > 3:24:00"We'll make her look like a king. And she's got long hair, she has to because she's a woman."
3:24:00 > 3:24:03Yes. I mean, it's assertive, but it's ambiguous, I guess.
3:24:03 > 3:24:08And that's exactly the kind of problem that Mary and those around her are facing.
3:24:10 > 3:24:13A year later, Mary married the heir to the mighty Habsburg Empire,
3:24:13 > 3:24:16the future Philip II of Spain.
3:24:16 > 3:24:18She doesn't look at all happy.
3:24:18 > 3:24:21- Well, she's not happy.- She's staring at him like, "You're on my patch."
3:24:21 > 3:24:23They're not honeymoon portraits, are they?
3:24:23 > 3:24:27But this is Mary, and she's in the dominant position of the queen,
3:24:27 > 3:24:30of the queen regnant. Philip is in the position of the consort.
3:24:30 > 3:24:34Nut the very interesting thing here is the floating crown,
3:24:34 > 3:24:36above and between them.
3:24:36 > 3:24:37If I was an Englishman at the time,
3:24:37 > 3:24:41I would begin to feel a bit anxious, potentially, about that floating crown.
3:24:41 > 3:24:45This is how we are in the sort of months after the wedding.
3:24:45 > 3:24:48Then...let me show you this.
3:24:49 > 3:24:51This is exciting! What do you think I'll show you?
3:24:51 > 3:24:53I think Philip's going to take over.
3:24:53 > 3:24:56- You think he's going to take over? - That's my guess.
3:24:56 > 3:24:59Well, let's see. You tell me. Look at that, read the portrait for me.
3:24:59 > 3:25:02He's in the dominant position, on, as we look, the left.
3:25:02 > 3:25:06Mary's by this point looking... Well, she's lost the bloom of youth, hasn't she?
3:25:06 > 3:25:09- Yeah! - There is still the floating crown,
3:25:09 > 3:25:12but that sword is clearly much bigger
3:25:12 > 3:25:15and more powerful than this sceptre.
3:25:15 > 3:25:16This is really big stuff.
3:25:16 > 3:25:20Suddenly Philip has changed sides. I mean, what the hell's going on?
3:25:21 > 3:25:26Who was truly wielding power? Mary or Philip?
3:25:29 > 3:25:32Perhaps the clue lies in a famous image of Mary
3:25:32 > 3:25:36commissioned by her father-in-law, Charles of Spain, in 1554.
3:25:38 > 3:25:41The original was by Anthonis Mor,
3:25:41 > 3:25:43and this is one of the surviving copies.
3:25:44 > 3:25:50The important thing about this portrait is less Mary's pale and slightly insipid face,
3:25:50 > 3:25:54and more that extravagant jewel that she's wearing on her breast
3:25:54 > 3:25:56that was part of a gift that was given to her by Philip
3:25:56 > 3:25:59in the summer of 1554, shortly before they got married.
3:25:59 > 3:26:05So right there in the heart of the image is an emblem of the Habsburg dynasty.
3:26:05 > 3:26:08Even the pose refers to the Habsburgs.
3:26:08 > 3:26:11Because it's reminiscent of a very famous seated pose
3:26:11 > 3:26:16in familiar portraits by Titian of Philip's mother, Isabella of Portugal.
3:26:16 > 3:26:21Here you have Mary, the first regnant queen in English history.
3:26:21 > 3:26:24And rather than looking like a sovereign, she looks like a consort
3:26:24 > 3:26:27of an entirely different European dynasty altogether.
3:26:27 > 3:26:31She's been relegated from her status as a queen to that of a bride.
3:26:32 > 3:26:35Mary's marriage was a political necessity,
3:26:35 > 3:26:39but it limited her power - and her portraits.
3:26:39 > 3:26:43It was left to her successor to pick up from where she left off.
3:26:46 > 3:26:50Of all the paintings of queens, it's those of Elizabeth I
3:26:50 > 3:26:53that truly capture the imagination.
3:26:53 > 3:26:54The Ditchley Portrait,
3:26:54 > 3:26:58by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger, is one of the most famous of all.
3:26:58 > 3:27:00In it she's Gloriana,
3:27:00 > 3:27:03the eternally youthful Virgin Queen.
3:27:05 > 3:27:07The thing about this painting
3:27:07 > 3:27:09is quite how remarkably strange it really is.
3:27:09 > 3:27:13Because it was painted towards the end of Elizabeth's life in 1592,
3:27:13 > 3:27:20and she's standing in this supernatural kind of cosmic space,
3:27:20 > 3:27:23with her realm literally laid out at her feet.
3:27:23 > 3:27:26So she is, compared with the kingdom, colossal.
3:27:26 > 3:27:32She's in this strange area where she has the elements at her command.
3:27:32 > 3:27:36There's sunlight to the left, and then there's a thunderstorm
3:27:36 > 3:27:37and she can command both.
3:27:37 > 3:27:40She can summon sunlight, she can banish tempests as she wishes.
3:27:40 > 3:27:44As a piece of propaganda, obviously this is very powerful indeed,
3:27:44 > 3:27:48it's really effective. But it's also something else,
3:27:48 > 3:27:50it's awesome, it's odd, and it's quite new.
3:27:50 > 3:27:53She's something dazzling and terrifying.
3:27:53 > 3:27:55A radiant goddess if you like,
3:27:55 > 3:27:58a symbol of power more than a real person.
3:27:58 > 3:28:02So this portrait did a huge amount to completely reinvent
3:28:02 > 3:28:05how you go about painting a queen.
3:28:09 > 3:28:1340 years earlier, there was little hint of what was to come.
3:28:13 > 3:28:18Aged 14, she's depicted as a young, bookish princess -
3:28:18 > 3:28:22pale, cautious and actually quite sweet.
3:28:26 > 3:28:29In 1558, when she was 25,
3:28:29 > 3:28:34Elizabeth became England's first protestant queen,
3:28:34 > 3:28:39every move scrutinised by powerful Catholic enemies.
3:28:39 > 3:28:42She knew they were biding their time, and the threat of her rival,
3:28:42 > 3:28:46Mary Queen of Scots, loomed large.
3:28:48 > 3:28:52Elizabeth needed a strong royal portrait to restore stability
3:28:52 > 3:28:54and shore up her own power.
3:28:54 > 3:29:00She of course knew from her sister that a queen's image could all too easily escape her control.
3:29:01 > 3:29:04Unlike her father, Henry VIII,
3:29:04 > 3:29:07Elizabeth didn't have an artist who was up to the job.
3:29:09 > 3:29:12There are a number of artists who are producing images
3:29:12 > 3:29:15which don't show a regal-looking monarch,
3:29:15 > 3:29:17and you've got a difficult problem
3:29:17 > 3:29:22if you're an unmarried young woman who's taken the throne.
3:29:22 > 3:29:24Very early on in her reign, in the 1560s,
3:29:24 > 3:29:28we know that her ministers are really quite anxious about this and concerned about it.
3:29:28 > 3:29:32- So they were on the hunt for a really good court artist?- Yes.
3:29:34 > 3:29:38Six years into her reign, Elizabeth's advisers drafted a proclamation
3:29:38 > 3:29:41designed to regulate her image.
3:29:41 > 3:29:43No-one could make a portrait of the queen
3:29:43 > 3:29:45until that special artist could be found.
3:29:49 > 3:29:52- They're really quite covetable things.- You're telling me!
3:29:52 > 3:29:55- You want to hold them, to... - Can I hold it?
3:29:55 > 3:29:58You... I'm not going to give you this to hold
3:29:58 > 3:30:01because it's just so incredibly precious.
3:30:01 > 3:30:03You can see it very close up.
3:30:04 > 3:30:07The miniature was created by Nicholas Hilliard,
3:30:07 > 3:30:10a goldsmith and painter.
3:30:10 > 3:30:13We'll get a better look at it if we put it under this microscope,
3:30:13 > 3:30:17which gives you an amazing view of the queen's face,
3:30:17 > 3:30:20the background, the inscription
3:30:20 > 3:30:26and the way that he painted her hair and her jewels and the costume.
3:30:26 > 3:30:29This gives you a real sense of how breathtaking the skill required
3:30:29 > 3:30:31to make an image like this is.
3:30:31 > 3:30:36Hugely skilled, yeah. He's a really, really impressive painter.
3:30:36 > 3:30:39'Elizabeth had found her special painter.
3:30:39 > 3:30:43'Hilliard's miniature became an official image.
3:30:43 > 3:30:47'It was to have enormous influence on dozens of subsequent artists.'
3:30:48 > 3:30:51This one's called The Phoenix and this one's called The Pelican.
3:30:51 > 3:30:54This is after the jewels that she wears at her chest.
3:30:54 > 3:30:58And they're two images that are very, very closely related
3:30:58 > 3:31:00by the same artist.
3:31:00 > 3:31:05If you look at the face patterns on these, they're actually identical, but reversed.
3:31:05 > 3:31:08So this is the same image as this, the other way round.
3:31:08 > 3:31:12So he must have done a drawing of the queen to allow him
3:31:12 > 3:31:13to paint these images.
3:31:13 > 3:31:17'Tarnya's team had a theory that both portraits,
3:31:17 > 3:31:20'and many others, all derived from the same source -
3:31:20 > 3:31:22'Hilliard's miniature.'
3:31:22 > 3:31:26This is a tracing of that painting.
3:31:26 > 3:31:30And if we put it against a scaled-up version of the miniature,
3:31:30 > 3:31:34you can begin to see the close relationship
3:31:34 > 3:31:36between the miniature and the painting.
3:31:36 > 3:31:41Because the lips, the nose and just about the eyes match up,
3:31:41 > 3:31:43and the hairline matches up.
3:31:43 > 3:31:45That's a good fit.
3:31:45 > 3:31:47Does that feel conclusive that there's one source
3:31:47 > 3:31:50- for the two images, or the three images?- It does, it absolutely does.
3:31:50 > 3:31:53And that we've ended up with other images
3:31:53 > 3:31:57which use this face pattern again and again and again.
3:31:59 > 3:32:02The research proves that Hilliard was one of the first artists
3:32:02 > 3:32:05to be officially sanctioned by the queen.
3:32:05 > 3:32:09His face pattern could be disseminated to other painters to copy.
3:32:09 > 3:32:13It allowed Elizabeth unprecedented control of her image.
3:32:18 > 3:32:22Her face wasn't the only thing she tried to control in her portraits.
3:32:22 > 3:32:23Like her father,
3:32:23 > 3:32:27Elizabeth was obsessed with another aspect of her image.
3:32:27 > 3:32:28Clothes.
3:32:28 > 3:32:32- Boots are divine. - 'I'm at Angels Costumiers
3:32:32 > 3:32:35'to meet costume historian Judith Watt.'
3:32:36 > 3:32:41That's beautiful. God, that's nice.
3:32:41 > 3:32:44- I think you're going to recognise this lot.- Oh, yes!
3:32:44 > 3:32:46I see.
3:32:46 > 3:32:48Yes. Ah!
3:32:50 > 3:32:54There's a reproduction here of the painting so you can compare the two.
3:32:54 > 3:32:57- Yes. Well, it's nothing like, is it? - No!
3:32:57 > 3:32:58I mean, if you look at this...
3:32:58 > 3:33:02- her reticella lace. - What type of lace?
3:33:02 > 3:33:04- Reticella.- And what does that mean?
3:33:04 > 3:33:07Reticella is this cutwork lace that was imported from Italy.
3:33:07 > 3:33:11This was essentially extremely expensive, extremely stately.
3:33:11 > 3:33:16This is about formality and status. Out-dressing everybody else.
3:33:16 > 3:33:19Because of course in 1579,
3:33:19 > 3:33:22she brought in further sumptuary legislation,
3:33:22 > 3:33:25regulating exactly what people could wear,
3:33:25 > 3:33:30so she was always wearing stuff that nobody else could.
3:33:30 > 3:33:32So this is a painting which has worked, hasn't it,
3:33:32 > 3:33:34because it's gone down in history.
3:33:34 > 3:33:36- It has commemorated her, we're excited about it.- Yeah.
3:33:37 > 3:33:40Elizabeth remained unmarried and didn't produce an heir.
3:33:40 > 3:33:43She turned this weakness to her advantage
3:33:43 > 3:33:47and reinvented herself as the Virgin Queen.
3:33:47 > 3:33:50Why was it important she was seen as a Virgin Queen?
3:33:50 > 3:33:55Because she was filling the vacuum left, by the Reformation,
3:33:55 > 3:33:59whereby, you did not find images of the Virgin Mary around
3:33:59 > 3:34:02in people's homes, in every single church.
3:34:02 > 3:34:04That was a huge change.
3:34:04 > 3:34:06The English had been praying to the Virgin Mary for...
3:34:06 > 3:34:09you know, what, a thousand years, basically, hadn't they?
3:34:09 > 3:34:12There weren't any nuns left.
3:34:12 > 3:34:15Who was going to be the mother? This one.
3:34:15 > 3:34:16The mother of the people.
3:34:16 > 3:34:20I think that's fascinating. If you think about the Reformation,
3:34:20 > 3:34:23previously, everywhere there would be images of the Virgin Mary,
3:34:23 > 3:34:27that was the everyday visual texture of people's culture in life.
3:34:27 > 3:34:30- That disappeared overnight. - It had gone, absolutely.
3:34:30 > 3:34:33- So she can play that role, in a sense.- Absolutely.
3:34:33 > 3:34:35It was a brilliant piece of PR.
3:34:35 > 3:34:38I mean, she was worth worshiping, that's my opinion.
3:34:38 > 3:34:40I think she was a great monarch.
3:34:40 > 3:34:42The Ditchley isn't your favourite one, is it?
3:34:42 > 3:34:45- God, no!- I don't know why, I think the Ditchley one's brilliant.
3:34:45 > 3:34:49Oh, it's magnificent, but that dress is really boring.
3:34:49 > 3:34:50I find it tedious.
3:34:50 > 3:34:53You're pulling out a black dress, in comparison.
3:34:53 > 3:34:54- Tell me about this one then.- OK.
3:34:54 > 3:34:59So this is the sieve painting of Elizabeth in the 1580s,
3:34:59 > 3:35:01early 1580s.
3:35:01 > 3:35:05She's got jewels in her hair, pearls of course the symbol of chastity.
3:35:05 > 3:35:08And of course the sieve here, which is this symbol of virginity.
3:35:08 > 3:35:12This, cape, here, going around her
3:35:12 > 3:35:16is a kind of masque costume, so it's fancy dress.
3:35:16 > 3:35:20So ergo she's dressed as a vestal virgin, from ancient Rome.
3:35:20 > 3:35:22So that is the story that goes with it.
3:35:22 > 3:35:25So this idea of costume, which we see in several of the portraits,
3:35:25 > 3:35:28almost makes explicit this idea of performance.
3:35:28 > 3:35:30For Elizabeth, clothes were a form of performance,
3:35:30 > 3:35:34- for getting a message across. - Absolutely, in paintings they absolutely were.
3:35:34 > 3:35:38This is about communicating her image.
3:35:38 > 3:35:43The dress in these paintings is about delivering a message.
3:35:44 > 3:35:47Elizabeth had developed powerful skills of propaganda.
3:35:47 > 3:35:51In the last years of her reign, they'd be put to the test.
3:35:52 > 3:35:54'As Elizabeth approached old age,
3:35:54 > 3:35:58'plots against her became more frequent and more bizarre.
3:35:59 > 3:36:01'Bibles were laced with poison.
3:36:01 > 3:36:05'Saddles became toxic booby traps.
3:36:05 > 3:36:10'The need for a strong, powerful image became a matter of life and death.'
3:36:11 > 3:36:15During the Tudor period, being 60 and being a woman
3:36:15 > 3:36:18was considered unnatural and abhorrent.
3:36:18 > 3:36:22The thing is, if you were a monarch, it was something else altogether.
3:36:22 > 3:36:24It was also risky.
3:36:24 > 3:36:29Because a weak and feeble body meant a weak ruler and a feeble nation.
3:36:29 > 3:36:33So Elizabeth had to come up with quite a crude but effective solution to the problem.
3:36:33 > 3:36:38Which was she just started pretending that she wasn't getting older at all.
3:36:40 > 3:36:44Hilliard was called upon to shun reality
3:36:44 > 3:36:47and create a new face pattern - the Mask of Youth.
3:36:49 > 3:36:52As she approached the age of 70,
3:36:52 > 3:36:54the face of the balding, toothless queen
3:36:54 > 3:36:57was frozen into that of youthful beauty.
3:37:00 > 3:37:03The government called for unauthorised images of the queen
3:37:03 > 3:37:05to be destroyed.
3:37:11 > 3:37:18It clearly worked. Elizabeth survived, reigning for 44 years.
3:37:18 > 3:37:22500 years later, we're still in thrall to this Virgin Queen.
3:37:27 > 3:37:31Elizabeth I died in 1603, aged 70.
3:37:31 > 3:37:35And for nearly 100 years, no other queen regnant ruled over England,
3:37:35 > 3:37:39until Mary II came to power in 1689.
3:37:39 > 3:37:44The thing is, after the sumptuous madness and all the strangeness
3:37:44 > 3:37:46of Elizabeth's Ditchley portrait,
3:37:46 > 3:37:49the way that Mary had herself represented
3:37:49 > 3:37:52was astonishingly conventional and formulaic.
3:37:52 > 3:37:56You could even say that she set the representation of queens
3:37:56 > 3:37:58right back to the beginning.
3:38:02 > 3:38:07In 1688, King James II had alienated the nation
3:38:07 > 3:38:09with his unpopular Catholic policies.
3:38:09 > 3:38:12Parliament wanted him out,
3:38:12 > 3:38:17and invited his Protestant daughter Mary, and her husband William of Orange,
3:38:17 > 3:38:19to start a glorious revolution.
3:38:19 > 3:38:24It succeeded, but opinion was divided on who should rule.
3:38:26 > 3:38:30Should it be Mary, the daughter of James II?
3:38:30 > 3:38:33Or should it be her husband and first cousin William,
3:38:33 > 3:38:37who had a huge army but was a Dutchman, possibly homosexual
3:38:37 > 3:38:40and could only claim to be fourth in line to the throne?
3:38:40 > 3:38:43In the end, Parliament chose both.
3:38:43 > 3:38:47The idea was to combine Mary's legitimacy with William's military might.
3:38:47 > 3:38:49William would take the administrative power.
3:38:49 > 3:38:53Aside from that, it sounded reasonably egalitarian.
3:38:53 > 3:38:56But the portraits tell a very different story.
3:38:57 > 3:39:00As the leader of a violent and bloody revolution,
3:39:00 > 3:39:02William was surrounded by enemies.
3:39:02 > 3:39:06He needed propaganda on an epic scale.
3:39:08 > 3:39:11To stress his legitimacy,
3:39:11 > 3:39:15he borrowed heavily from portraits of his ancestor, Charles I.
3:39:17 > 3:39:21It's your classic way of painting a king.
3:39:21 > 3:39:23William is in the centre.
3:39:23 > 3:39:25The whole point of an equestrian portrait is that
3:39:25 > 3:39:28you see the monarch, or the Roman Emperor, in full control.
3:39:28 > 3:39:31And he's trampling on these symbols of war.
3:39:31 > 3:39:33To the left you can see Neptune.
3:39:33 > 3:39:35Course, he's a very powerful god,
3:39:35 > 3:39:38but he looks here like a slightly faded, feeble, weakling presence
3:39:38 > 3:39:42compared to the star of the show, William himself.
3:39:42 > 3:39:46The whole message of this is a full-blown baroque composition,
3:39:46 > 3:39:51in which we're supposed to marvel at William's imperial prowess.
3:39:51 > 3:39:53At his might, at his strength.
3:39:53 > 3:39:57Traditional masculine values associated with a monarch.
3:39:59 > 3:40:03In Mary's portrait, we're asked to marvel at something else entirely.
3:40:07 > 3:40:10This is a portrait of Mary, not when she was queen,
3:40:10 > 3:40:12but when she was Princess of Orange.
3:40:12 > 3:40:16I look at it and feel a little bit sad, actually.
3:40:16 > 3:40:19Because it's so deliberately confining
3:40:19 > 3:40:22about what women in the late 17th century could be.
3:40:22 > 3:40:28It's almost as though she's decked out in this kind of straitjacket of convention.
3:40:28 > 3:40:30There are all of these tropes and motifs,
3:40:30 > 3:40:33cliches if you like, of what it means to be a woman.
3:40:33 > 3:40:36You have to be alluring, you have to be attractive.
3:40:36 > 3:40:40So we can see rosy cheeks, bright red lips, come hither eyes.
3:40:40 > 3:40:43Even in the background, the garland of flowers,
3:40:43 > 3:40:46as though she herself is another succulent bloom,
3:40:46 > 3:40:49something that will one day produce children.
3:40:49 > 3:40:51Here's a future Queen of England,
3:40:51 > 3:40:53and yet she looks like
3:40:53 > 3:40:57any number of the beauties who dominated the English court.
3:40:57 > 3:40:59To see what I mean, you just need to look at this,
3:40:59 > 3:41:02another very glamorous portrait of an aristocratic lady,
3:41:02 > 3:41:06which has got all of the same tropes and motifs and ideas,
3:41:06 > 3:41:09which is essentially about aristocratic women
3:41:09 > 3:41:12as sexy...almost merchandise.
3:41:16 > 3:41:19This image of Mary remains the template by which
3:41:19 > 3:41:22she was painted throughout the rest of her life.
3:41:22 > 3:41:25From her coronation until her death at the age of 32,
3:41:25 > 3:41:29Mary was celebrated in portraits for little more than her beauty.
3:41:31 > 3:41:37Her successor, her ungainly younger sister, didn't even have that.
3:41:42 > 3:41:47I reckon that most people would be hard-pressed to name this lady.
3:41:47 > 3:41:51Queen Anne. The thing about Anne is that she has a very bad reputation.
3:41:53 > 3:41:56Anne's contemporaries noted she was dull and dim-witted,
3:41:56 > 3:42:00but her appearance caused abject horror.
3:42:00 > 3:42:05Obese and notoriously plain, she had a weeping eye and a squint.
3:42:06 > 3:42:09She was supposedly so ridden with gout,
3:42:09 > 3:42:12she couldn't even make it to her own coronation.
3:42:12 > 3:42:14She had to be carried to the ceremony. Let's look at this.
3:42:15 > 3:42:19The thing is, she ruled at the beginning of the 18th century.
3:42:19 > 3:42:22And this woman actually presided over
3:42:22 > 3:42:25one of the most exciting periods in our nation's history.
3:42:28 > 3:42:31The reign of Anne coincided with many great achievements.
3:42:33 > 3:42:36The Empire expanded into Europe and America.
3:42:38 > 3:42:42Architecture flourished, as John Vanbrugh built
3:42:42 > 3:42:44the Baroque masterpiece, Blenheim Palace.
3:42:44 > 3:42:47And literature flowered,
3:42:47 > 3:42:51with Alexander Pope writing his groundbreaking satire The Rape Of The Lock.
3:42:53 > 3:42:56While Anne presided over this era of innovation,
3:42:56 > 3:43:00history hasn't let her claim the credit.
3:43:00 > 3:43:03It seems her propaganda machine wasn't in the best of shape.
3:43:05 > 3:43:09In Anne's coronation portrait, she sought to align herself
3:43:09 > 3:43:12with Elizabeth I, dressing in gold.
3:43:12 > 3:43:15While Elizabeth was a resplendent Virgin Queen,
3:43:15 > 3:43:19the paintings of Anne are remarkably unflattering.
3:43:19 > 3:43:21And even worse, they're boring.
3:43:22 > 3:43:24Why is Queen Anne's portraiture
3:43:24 > 3:43:29so seemingly dull, unglamorous and conventional?
3:43:29 > 3:43:33Physically, she didn't, I think, look as she might have wanted.
3:43:33 > 3:43:35So you think she was anxious about that?
3:43:35 > 3:43:38Yeah, I think there would be a real anxiety about portraying
3:43:38 > 3:43:41that sort of view as a queen to her subjects.
3:43:41 > 3:43:44It was a pre-photographic age, though. No-one need know!
3:43:44 > 3:43:46That's true.
3:43:46 > 3:43:50But I think, although you want something that's idealised,
3:43:50 > 3:43:52you also want something that's believable.
3:43:52 > 3:43:54But it would have been so easy!
3:43:54 > 3:43:58When you're commissioning official court portraiture, it's supposed to be flattering.
3:43:58 > 3:44:02It does seem like she was the visual equivalent of having cloth ears
3:44:02 > 3:44:05in not understanding that art is a brilliant propaganda tool.
3:44:05 > 3:44:10Both of James's daughters were given a very, very poor education,
3:44:10 > 3:44:13especially when you consider the fact that people must have realised
3:44:13 > 3:44:16there was a very real possibility they would inherit the throne.
3:44:19 > 3:44:22It seems for a queen at least, beauty matters.
3:44:22 > 3:44:24I can't help wondering if,
3:44:24 > 3:44:27armed with a strong portrait celebrating her virtues,
3:44:27 > 3:44:31history might have treated Queen Anne with a little more respect.
3:44:38 > 3:44:40By the late 18th century,
3:44:40 > 3:44:43the Age of Enlightenment had transformed ideas about women.
3:44:43 > 3:44:46Queen Charlotte, the wife of King George III,
3:44:46 > 3:44:50was lauded for her command of culture and science.
3:44:50 > 3:44:52Yet, despite all her many talents,
3:44:52 > 3:44:58in portraits, once again, it wasn't the queen's intelligence that was celebrated.
3:45:00 > 3:45:04Charlotte was a great patron of the arts, as was her husband,
3:45:04 > 3:45:06who founded this place, the Royal Academy.
3:45:10 > 3:45:13The painter Johann Zoffany specialised in works
3:45:13 > 3:45:16that were refined, polished and elaborate.
3:45:16 > 3:45:18He was quickly spotted by the king and queen,
3:45:18 > 3:45:22and this painting was his first royal commission.
3:45:23 > 3:45:27I think, rather cleverly, Zoffany offers a whopping great clue
3:45:27 > 3:45:31about how we should think of Charlotte herself.
3:45:31 > 3:45:37If you look at the composition, her form and the colour of her dress
3:45:37 > 3:45:40is mirrored very clearly in this triangular,
3:45:40 > 3:45:44whitish, silverish dressing table to her side.
3:45:44 > 3:45:48So Zoffany's not stressing her power as a queen consort.
3:45:48 > 3:45:51Instead, he's stressing her femininity.
3:45:51 > 3:45:55So I would call the tone of the painting
3:45:55 > 3:45:57a piece of elegant sycophancy,
3:45:57 > 3:46:00because it's really well done, but it is an official commission.
3:46:00 > 3:46:04Unfortunately for her, she wasn't always going to be
3:46:04 > 3:46:10depicted in such an alluring, elegant and beautiful manner.
3:46:12 > 3:46:16In reality, contemporaries thought Charlotte exceedingly plain
3:46:16 > 3:46:18and, increasingly, ugly.
3:46:20 > 3:46:24Unluckily, her reign coincided with the Golden Age of Satire.
3:46:24 > 3:46:26This is a far cry from Zoffany.
3:46:26 > 3:46:30Look at her, she's a monster with snakes in her hair,
3:46:30 > 3:46:34long, scaly, and her breasts are long, sagging, withered, like udders.
3:46:34 > 3:46:37And she's protecting Pitt's private parts, cos it was said of Pitt,
3:46:37 > 3:46:41who never married, he was stiff with everybody except the ladies.
3:46:41 > 3:46:43And so here is Charlotte protecting the Prime Minister,
3:46:43 > 3:46:45but not depicted in an at all friendly way.
3:46:45 > 3:46:49And look how Charlotte is depicted again, with her ragged, jagged teeth,
3:46:49 > 3:46:52very ugly with a prominent nose.
3:46:52 > 3:46:56This was a depiction of a queen that was never really popular.
3:46:56 > 3:46:59- So she was fair game to satirists? - Perfect game.
3:46:59 > 3:47:01But I'm intrigued about the novelty of, suddenly,
3:47:01 > 3:47:04the disrespect paid to a queen, which is something new.
3:47:04 > 3:47:07If I think you had portrayed Elizabeth I in this way
3:47:07 > 3:47:11or Mary Tudor, you would have been executed.
3:47:11 > 3:47:14No question about that.
3:47:14 > 3:47:16And you would have been executed twice
3:47:16 > 3:47:19if you'd done Henry VIII like that. No trouble at all.
3:47:20 > 3:47:24By the 18th century, it was Parliament, not the King,
3:47:24 > 3:47:27who truly wielded authority.
3:47:27 > 3:47:29So this is a reflection of diminished power
3:47:29 > 3:47:31for the Hanoverian Crown.
3:47:31 > 3:47:33Yes, the Prime Minister of the day was a very, very
3:47:33 > 3:47:36important figure and the Cabinet was important and slowly
3:47:36 > 3:47:42the power was being transferred to those people who had elected mandate.
3:47:44 > 3:47:48Yet Charlotte was facing more than the loss of mere power.
3:47:48 > 3:47:50By the late 1780s, her life was at stake.
3:47:52 > 3:47:55Here is Louis XVI executed in France,
3:47:55 > 3:47:59and here is the possibility of George III being executed,
3:47:59 > 3:48:01and here is Charlotte,
3:48:01 > 3:48:05strung up on a lamppost with the Prime Minister in St James's.
3:48:05 > 3:48:08So there were crises threatening Britain at this time?
3:48:08 > 3:48:12There were great crises. There was real possibility of revolution.
3:48:12 > 3:48:15All the crown heads in Europe were worried they might be guillotined.
3:48:17 > 3:48:20In France, the king and queen had alienated their subjects
3:48:20 > 3:48:22with their overblown, absolute monarchy.
3:48:25 > 3:48:28To survive, the British Crown needed a new kind of image,
3:48:28 > 3:48:30as far away from this as possible.
3:48:32 > 3:48:36In 1789, Charlotte, still reeling from the events in France
3:48:36 > 3:48:38and her husband's madness,
3:48:38 > 3:48:41was asked to sit for the artist Thomas Lawrence.
3:48:41 > 3:48:45Just 20 years old, this awkward young man offended her instantly.
3:48:48 > 3:48:50Lawrence had a problem on his hands.
3:48:50 > 3:48:53The queen insisted on sitting for him while her daughter read to her
3:48:53 > 3:48:58but she appeared totally bored and grim-faced and a bit severe.
3:48:58 > 3:49:00In a bid to enliven her expression
3:49:00 > 3:49:04he asked, not unreasonably, if he could engage her in conversation.
3:49:04 > 3:49:07But Charlotte considered this a terrible presumption
3:49:07 > 3:49:09and refused to sit for him again.
3:49:09 > 3:49:14It would take all his innate talent to transform his stony subject
3:49:14 > 3:49:17into someone animated and warm.
3:49:19 > 3:49:22To find out how he did it, I'm going behind the scenes
3:49:22 > 3:49:25at the National Gallery to meet Larry Keith,
3:49:25 > 3:49:27Director of Conservation.
3:49:27 > 3:49:30X-rays reveal Lawrence's charcoal drawing from his first
3:49:30 > 3:49:32and only sitting.
3:49:32 > 3:49:35I'll just move this up so that you can see detail of her.
3:49:35 > 3:49:39I don't know whether you think it's fanciful, but she looks more bored
3:49:39 > 3:49:42in the X-ray, and here she's a little bit more alive.
3:49:42 > 3:49:44I'd certainly agree that there's movement in the mouth
3:49:44 > 3:49:47and there's a bit of adjustment, particularly the contour
3:49:47 > 3:49:49of the upper lip, that could be consistent with
3:49:49 > 3:49:52the difficulty he had getting a likeness that was pleasing.
3:49:52 > 3:49:55It's interesting knowing a little bit about the sitting
3:49:55 > 3:49:59and the X-ray allows us to see that transformation,
3:49:59 > 3:50:02the whole surface is animated and alive, and that's to do with
3:50:02 > 3:50:05the way he's actually putting paint down as we can see.
3:50:05 > 3:50:09Yes, I think the X-ray to me suggests the way in which he
3:50:09 > 3:50:13was able to add a bit of sparkle and to animate from that one sitting.
3:50:13 > 3:50:15Sparkle's a good word for it.
3:50:15 > 3:50:18Yeah, absolutely. The thing that interests me about it is this kind
3:50:18 > 3:50:22of way that he could combine this amazingly expressive bravura
3:50:22 > 3:50:25brush-handling yet harness that within an image that you know,
3:50:25 > 3:50:29was striving for a decorum appropriate
3:50:29 > 3:50:30to a portrait of the queen.
3:50:30 > 3:50:33Every era has to decide where those boundaries lie.
3:50:33 > 3:50:35The picture didn't find favour at court.
3:50:35 > 3:50:38George III was disgusted by this, he said.
3:50:38 > 3:50:41Yeah, he wasn't pleased with her hairstyle it seems.
3:50:41 > 3:50:43It is a bit mad, the hair.
3:50:45 > 3:50:49King George had missed the point. Thomas Lawrence was a genius.
3:50:50 > 3:50:54I find it unbelievable that someone who was only 20 created this.
3:50:54 > 3:50:56It's been painted with such assurance.
3:50:56 > 3:50:59There's such an enjoyment in the whole idea of using a brush
3:50:59 > 3:51:01and oil paints in the first place.
3:51:01 > 3:51:06Lawrence has injected everything with this brilliant spirit of informality.
3:51:06 > 3:51:08Yes, there are the classic tropes
3:51:08 > 3:51:12and ingredients of good old-fashioned royal portraiture.
3:51:12 > 3:51:17The big swag of drapery, the sense of a platform. But there's nothing
3:51:17 > 3:51:21overly grand here. The swag of drapery is just a curtain.
3:51:21 > 3:51:24She's not really sitting on an elaborate throne,
3:51:24 > 3:51:27it's just a very plain and simple chair.
3:51:27 > 3:51:30We're not in the presence of someone who's been allowed
3:51:30 > 3:51:32to rule by divine right.
3:51:32 > 3:51:35And if you think of when this was painted,
3:51:35 > 3:51:38suddenly the informality of the image makes sense.
3:51:38 > 3:51:42Because this dates from 1789 - think of what was going on
3:51:42 > 3:51:44in France, the Bastille had fallen.
3:51:44 > 3:51:49All of a sudden, if you were a queen, it was imperative that you
3:51:49 > 3:51:55didn't look overly extravagant and grand and regal and out of touch.
3:51:58 > 3:52:00In the last years of their reign,
3:52:00 > 3:52:02George and Charlotte not only kept their heads,
3:52:02 > 3:52:07the sober, pared-down monarchy won them new adoration
3:52:07 > 3:52:10from their people.
3:52:10 > 3:52:1250 years later, by the reign of their granddaughter Victoria,
3:52:12 > 3:52:16the great monarchies of Europe were disappearing fast.
3:52:16 > 3:52:19In Britain, dissenting voices were loudly questioning
3:52:19 > 3:52:21the very notion of royalty.
3:52:23 > 3:52:28Victoria took Charlotte's image of a humbled monarchy and ran with it.
3:52:29 > 3:52:32Queen Victoria was the first ruling female monarch whose children
3:52:32 > 3:52:34survived childhood.
3:52:34 > 3:52:36Unlike Charlotte, who was a consort,
3:52:36 > 3:52:40Victoria had to portray herself as both a mother and a ruler.
3:52:40 > 3:52:43It was a tricky path to negotiate
3:52:43 > 3:52:46but Victoria turned that weakness into a strength.
3:52:46 > 3:52:49She realised the role of mother is the one trump card
3:52:49 > 3:52:53a queen has over a king.
3:52:56 > 3:53:00One painting not only transformed the idea of the queen,
3:53:00 > 3:53:03it delivered her image to a completely new audience.
3:53:04 > 3:53:06The royal family in 1846,
3:53:06 > 3:53:10by the German artist Franz Xaver Winterhalter.
3:53:11 > 3:53:14If I'm honest, it's not very fashionable to say
3:53:14 > 3:53:16you like a painting like this one.
3:53:16 > 3:53:21It's done in a very suave, quite cosmopolitan 19th-century style.
3:53:21 > 3:53:24Technically, it's a virtuoso piece of painting.
3:53:25 > 3:53:28To modern eyes it almost feels a bit slick.
3:53:28 > 3:53:31But the thing is, I find this really charming.
3:53:31 > 3:53:33I think it's a wonderful composition.
3:53:33 > 3:53:36Because what we see isn't that old tradition of kings and queens
3:53:36 > 3:53:42in stiff, fusty outfits and positions.
3:53:42 > 3:53:45Rather we have Victoria and Albert surrounded by their kids.
3:53:45 > 3:53:49She has her arm around the eldest, Bertie, the future Edward VII.
3:53:49 > 3:53:52The second son Alfred is tottering around on the rug.
3:53:52 > 3:53:54Albert's keeping a watchful eye over him.
3:53:54 > 3:53:57And to the right you have this really beautiful mini group
3:53:57 > 3:54:00within the larger group of three daughters.
3:54:00 > 3:54:04Quite a clever detail on Winterhalter's part is
3:54:04 > 3:54:06there are seven people in the group.
3:54:06 > 3:54:11Only two of them look out at the viewer - Victoria and the infant.
3:54:11 > 3:54:16And subtly, Winterhalter is aligning those two protagonists.
3:54:16 > 3:54:20This is about a queen who's as much a mother as she is a monarch.
3:54:21 > 3:54:25The following year the painting was displayed at St James's Palace.
3:54:25 > 3:54:28Lord Palmerston, the future Prime Minister, declared it
3:54:28 > 3:54:32the finest modern painting he'd ever seen.
3:54:32 > 3:54:36100,000 visitors queued to see it. That was just the beginning.
3:54:36 > 3:54:39Thanks to the revolution in printing,
3:54:39 > 3:54:41the image would be mass produced.
3:54:41 > 3:54:43These were very easy to obtain.
3:54:43 > 3:54:46Some print shops said
3:54:46 > 3:54:50that 70% of all the sales they made were of images
3:54:50 > 3:54:54of Queen Victoria and domesticity is the idea that the royal family
3:54:54 > 3:54:56are really trying to project here.
3:54:58 > 3:55:03Victoria was desperate to court an influential demographic -
3:55:03 > 3:55:06the middle class, newly furnished with the right to vote.
3:55:06 > 3:55:10In 1860, she gave permission for the first official set
3:55:10 > 3:55:13of royal photographs specifically aimed
3:55:13 > 3:55:15at her new middle-class fan base.
3:55:17 > 3:55:18When the first ones went on sale,
3:55:18 > 3:55:2360,000 were sold just in the first couple of days.
3:55:23 > 3:55:26The wholesale price was 3p a portrait -
3:55:26 > 3:55:28that isn't really very much, even in the 1860s.
3:55:28 > 3:55:32It's like you've invited the queen into your home
3:55:32 > 3:55:35and she's there on the mantelpiece because these are not
3:55:35 > 3:55:36images of power.
3:55:36 > 3:55:39The royal family don't want to lord it, at this stage.
3:55:39 > 3:55:43I think that they have reached the conclusion that ordinariness
3:55:43 > 3:55:45is the key to their survival.
3:55:48 > 3:55:53As Victoria's reign continued, she reached a new obstacle. Her age.
3:55:54 > 3:56:01After Elizabeth I, no queen lived beyond the age of 40 until Victoria.
3:56:03 > 3:56:06Perhaps the secret to her long life was her favourite tipple
3:56:06 > 3:56:08Scotch in her claret.
3:56:08 > 3:56:10Here we go, cheers.
3:56:15 > 3:56:17Tastes good. I think it tastes good.
3:56:19 > 3:56:21Obviously, it's got a kick.
3:56:21 > 3:56:25If you are a drunk, this is a good drink.
3:56:25 > 3:56:28She probably had one of these to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee.
3:56:28 > 3:56:30I think she had quite a few, and I think she had
3:56:30 > 3:56:34quite a few in general. Victoria didn't turn down a little drink.
3:56:36 > 3:56:39The Diamond Jubilee was a moment of celebration,
3:56:39 > 3:56:42but it was unsettling to see her age.
3:56:44 > 3:56:47The big problem of course is that Victoria's getting so old.
3:56:47 > 3:56:50People knew that and were panicking about what was going to happen
3:56:50 > 3:56:52when her son came to the throne.
3:56:54 > 3:56:56Was everything going to collapse?
3:56:56 > 3:56:59Was it going to be the end of what they'd known?
3:56:59 > 3:57:02She was this great queen, she'd been on the throne for 60 years.
3:57:02 > 3:57:05By the end of her reign she ruled a quarter of the world's population.
3:57:05 > 3:57:08It was all glitter and razzmatazz and confidence and the British
3:57:08 > 3:57:11were so excited, but underneath, the Empire was crumbling.
3:57:12 > 3:57:14How could Britannia rule the waves
3:57:14 > 3:57:17if a quarter of its population lived in destitution?
3:57:19 > 3:57:23On the Continent, Germany was growing ever stronger.
3:57:23 > 3:57:26The dominance of the Empire was no longer assured.
3:57:28 > 3:57:31How do you show most of all that Britain has to be feared?
3:57:31 > 3:57:34That's the important thing. The rest of the world must still be
3:57:34 > 3:57:36terrified of Britain and its might.
3:57:36 > 3:57:41This was a question that became more important when she was old.
3:57:41 > 3:57:44Because when you've seen photos of her,
3:57:44 > 3:57:49you can't really produce those lying Gloriana-type portraits that we
3:57:49 > 3:57:53have of, say, Elizabeth I, that knock just a few years off
3:57:53 > 3:57:56her age. We can't have this air brushing going on any more.
3:57:56 > 3:57:58They can't diverge too much from what everyone knows
3:57:58 > 3:58:01she looks like, which is actually, by her older years, pretty plain
3:58:01 > 3:58:03and pretty cross, really.
3:58:06 > 3:58:10The last portrait of Queen Victoria is on display in her apartments
3:58:10 > 3:58:11at Kensington Palace.
3:58:11 > 3:58:16The artist Heinrich von Angeli deliberately presented her in old age.
3:58:16 > 3:58:19I find it quite tricky looking at the painting though,
3:58:19 > 3:58:24because I don't see necessarily a woman who is radiating
3:58:24 > 3:58:28imperial virtues and strength and wisdom.
3:58:28 > 3:58:31I see someone who looks depressed.
3:58:31 > 3:58:34I think she looks even a little bored and glum in this picture.
3:58:34 > 3:58:38She's this big dark mound of melancholy, really.
3:58:38 > 3:58:41And the whole message of the painting for me
3:58:41 > 3:58:46is that it points out how tricky it is for an artist to reconcile
3:58:46 > 3:58:49painting a potent queen who's also very old.
3:58:49 > 3:58:54And I guess if she is meant to be the embodiment of Empire,
3:58:54 > 3:58:59then what she represents is a kind of steadfastness - the fact
3:58:59 > 3:59:03that the Empire is immovable, and immutable, and perhaps, if you're
3:59:03 > 3:59:07anxious about Britain's future, you can take some heart from that.
3:59:14 > 3:59:19Over the next 50 years, the Empire was to change beyond recognition.
3:59:21 > 3:59:25World War II saw Britain bankrupt and diminished,
3:59:25 > 3:59:27trailing behind America and the Soviet Union.
3:59:31 > 3:59:33Throughout, King George VI had proved
3:59:33 > 3:59:37a strong figurehead, inspiring enormous affection.
3:59:40 > 3:59:44His death at the age of only 56 brought the nation to a standstill.
3:59:48 > 3:59:52The new Queen, Elizabeth II, was just 25.
3:59:52 > 3:59:55Those around her were deeply concerned by her lack
3:59:55 > 4:00:00of experience. The royal propaganda machine sprang into action.
4:00:08 > 4:00:13This is a very famous picture of Elizabeth on her coronation day
4:00:13 > 4:00:15taken by the society photographer Cecil Beaton.
4:00:15 > 4:00:19This is a piece of patriotic national myth-making.
4:00:19 > 4:00:21It's full of all the swag,
4:00:21 > 4:00:24the trappings, worthy of sovereigns of old.
4:00:24 > 4:00:26Elizabeth is wearing the Imperial State Crown,
4:00:26 > 4:00:30she's decked out with jewels from every corner of the Empire.
4:00:30 > 4:00:34If you look very closely, you can see the new Queen is wearing
4:00:34 > 4:00:37these enormous drop pearl earrings,
4:00:37 > 4:00:42and those earrings once belonged to Queen Elizabeth I.
4:00:42 > 4:00:46He's trying to summon a vision of a new Elizabethan age.
4:00:46 > 4:00:48As a piece of visual rhetoric,
4:00:48 > 4:00:51Beaton's photograph is extremely persuasive.
4:00:51 > 4:00:58But its DNA or vocabulary owes everything to the queens who preceded Elizabeth II.
4:01:04 > 4:01:09In the '50s, images of Queen Elizabeth present her as a glamorous
4:01:09 > 4:01:13young woman, who's nonetheless regal, formal and bejewelled.
4:01:14 > 4:01:17But youthful beauty could only take her so far.
4:01:23 > 4:01:30In 1966, the Queen visited Aberfan, in Wales, after a mining disaster
4:01:30 > 4:01:35had killed 144 people, mostly children.
4:01:37 > 4:01:43- NEWSREADER:- The Duke described the scene when he first visited the disaster area a week ago...
4:01:43 > 4:01:46It had taken her nine days to make the trip,
4:01:46 > 4:01:49and the Queen was vilified for being remote and out of touch.
4:01:49 > 4:01:53Her image was out of step with the '60s.
4:01:53 > 4:01:54She needed to catch up.
4:01:56 > 4:01:59You see the new era of informality in the photograph
4:01:59 > 4:02:05by Eve Arnold and this is a really breezy, fresh, very beautiful image.
4:02:05 > 4:02:10This is now the kind of imagery which seems a world away
4:02:10 > 4:02:12from the 1950s.
4:02:12 > 4:02:14It's not exactly a state occasion.
4:02:14 > 4:02:18It could almost be anybody. It could almost be a member of the public.
4:02:18 > 4:02:22This is a radical way of presenting the Queen in this much more
4:02:22 > 4:02:24literally down to earth fashion.
4:02:24 > 4:02:25It's a great photograph.
4:02:25 > 4:02:27There's another great photograph,
4:02:27 > 4:02:30which is just here, which is my favourite one in the show.
4:02:30 > 4:02:34Which is similar - similar tone, similar feel,
4:02:34 > 4:02:37and, this is, well... It says this was taken in '71,
4:02:37 > 4:02:39and where is she? She's on the Britannia.
4:02:39 > 4:02:42This is a photograph taken by Lord Lichfield. They're just
4:02:42 > 4:02:46crossing the Equator, and the tradition is that you duck a member
4:02:46 > 4:02:49of the crew, and soak them down, and that's what happened to Lichfield.
4:02:49 > 4:02:53He kind of expected it and had a waterproof camera at the ready
4:02:53 > 4:02:57and so when he bobbed up, he caught the Queen, laughing spontaneously
4:02:57 > 4:02:59at this hilarious moment.
4:02:59 > 4:03:01I think what I love about it is that she looks
4:03:01 > 4:03:05so chic and glamorous. I like just, formally, I mean,
4:03:05 > 4:03:08it's a very sort of spare image behind, it's beautifully composed,
4:03:08 > 4:03:12I think she has very cool sunglasses, picked up in the porthole. There's a lot going on.
4:03:12 > 4:03:16I think what this photograph really does is address the notion
4:03:16 > 4:03:20that queens have to be very serious and po-faced
4:03:20 > 4:03:22and rather glum figures,
4:03:22 > 4:03:25and all of that is consigned to history and instead
4:03:25 > 4:03:29what you have is someone who is vivacious and enjoying themselves.
4:03:29 > 4:03:34But this new informality had unforeseen consequences.
4:03:34 > 4:03:37The Queen's image escaped her control.
4:03:37 > 4:03:39What do we see in this picture?
4:03:39 > 4:03:45Here is the Queen visiting Princess Anne in hospital
4:03:45 > 4:03:49for a routine gynaecological operation. It's nobody's business really,
4:03:49 > 4:03:53and yet we see the Queen running the gauntlet
4:03:53 > 4:03:58of a phalanx of photojournalists, all taking their photographs,
4:03:58 > 4:04:03so we now have this issue unfolding in the 1970s where there is
4:04:03 > 4:04:06a confusion between the public role of the Queen and her private life.
4:04:09 > 4:04:13The territory opened up by the media was exploited by a new faction.
4:04:13 > 4:04:15Contemporary artists.
4:04:16 > 4:04:21Artists like Gerhard Richter based their work on newspaper cuttings.
4:04:21 > 4:04:23Richter's blurry surfaces
4:04:23 > 4:04:26evade our attempts to see the subject in focus.
4:04:26 > 4:04:30Can art, he asks, really capture the truth of a person?
4:04:32 > 4:04:36For Andy Warhol, the Queen became nothing but surface,
4:04:36 > 4:04:39her public face complete artifice.
4:04:42 > 4:04:45What we see increasingly through the course of this exhibition
4:04:45 > 4:04:47and in the last 40 years,
4:04:47 > 4:04:52is a tendency to hold the Queen's image up in a critical light,
4:04:52 > 4:04:56and to pose questions about her relevance, her importance,
4:04:56 > 4:05:00and what she's for and what she's about and whether we need a Queen.
4:05:00 > 4:05:04All of these things are constantly coming through
4:05:04 > 4:05:05the images that we have of her.
4:05:09 > 4:05:12In days gone by, the Queen's predecessors might
4:05:12 > 4:05:14have retaliated with a strong royal portrait.
4:05:18 > 4:05:21The trouble is, in the 21st century,
4:05:21 > 4:05:25an official portrait of the monarch no longer wields much power.
4:05:29 > 4:05:31Why are so many portraits of the Queen
4:05:31 > 4:05:33so exceedingly boring?
4:05:33 > 4:05:38Perhaps it's their sycophancy? Or creaky paintwork?
4:05:38 > 4:05:42Antony Williams painted the Queen like an OAP with sausage fingers.
4:05:43 > 4:05:46The trouble with so many portraits of the Queen is that they
4:05:46 > 4:05:50are full of all the regalia we associate with monarchy -
4:05:50 > 4:05:54crowns, jewels and cloaks - but they don't quite acknowledge
4:05:54 > 4:05:57that those trappings today feel a bit odd and anachronistic.
4:05:57 > 4:06:01Contemporary artists have to conjure some of that pomp and splendour
4:06:01 > 4:06:03that accrues to a monarch, for sure,
4:06:03 > 4:06:06but they also have to reconcile that with a sense of someone real,
4:06:06 > 4:06:10someone who lives and breathes in the 21st century.
4:06:10 > 4:06:12And that is an enormous challenge.
4:06:18 > 4:06:23Thomas Struth is one of the leading contemporary artists of his age,
4:06:23 > 4:06:27photographing cities, families, and science labs, with precise,
4:06:27 > 4:06:29almost forensic detail.
4:06:30 > 4:06:34He's certainly not known for taking on celebrity commissions.
4:06:35 > 4:06:37Can I ask you a little bit about what it's like
4:06:37 > 4:06:41to take on a royal commission like this? Is there a risk,
4:06:41 > 4:06:46taking on this commission, that you might lose credibility?
4:06:46 > 4:06:49I thought maybe it's going to ruin my career or then everybody
4:06:49 > 4:06:52wants to talk about the royal portrait all the time.
4:06:52 > 4:06:54Like us.
4:06:54 > 4:06:57Yeah, like you. But in the end I thought, you know,
4:06:57 > 4:07:03I cannot reject because it would be such an unusual opportunity.
4:07:03 > 4:07:06But what was the appeal? Why did you say yes?
4:07:06 > 4:07:13It was a possibility to enter the ring of this historical activity
4:07:13 > 4:07:18and see how far I can go or what my contribution might possibly be.
4:07:18 > 4:07:21So from the beginning, very self-consciously, you're thinking
4:07:21 > 4:07:23about the whole tradition of royal portraiture
4:07:23 > 4:07:25and how this image might fit into that?
4:07:25 > 4:07:27Yes, of course, yeah.
4:07:27 > 4:07:32The photograph was taken on an old-fashioned medium-format camera,
4:07:32 > 4:07:37which gives a vast level of detail even when the subject's life size.
4:07:37 > 4:07:41I think this is a really fantastic piece, a work of art,
4:07:41 > 4:07:44which you can't say of many, many royal portraits.
4:07:44 > 4:07:45I think so many of them are rubbish.
4:07:45 > 4:07:51I love this one, partly because it isn't overwhelmingly pompous
4:07:51 > 4:07:55and it isn't sycophantic and they feel separate from us
4:07:55 > 4:07:58and grand, but not too grand.
4:07:58 > 4:07:59Somehow approachable.
4:07:59 > 4:08:02You could look at them as parents, you could look at them
4:08:02 > 4:08:06- as a representative of their generation.- Grandparents?
4:08:06 > 4:08:08They are actually the same age as my parents.
4:08:08 > 4:08:13So in a sense you've created a portrait, a sympathetic portrait
4:08:13 > 4:08:16of a generation that has had its time, in a sense,
4:08:16 > 4:08:19but you're not brutally removing them out of the picture at all.
4:08:19 > 4:08:22No, it's... I mean, of course, it's a sort of strange situation
4:08:22 > 4:08:28because Queen Elizabeth you know is...is powerful
4:08:28 > 4:08:31in a more foggy and less determined manner than
4:08:31 > 4:08:35queens or kings of England have been before, so now
4:08:35 > 4:08:42it's a question of celebrity, fame. It's a very undefined energy.
4:08:42 > 4:08:48Warhol - all about surface. You - much more about a sense of depth.
4:08:48 > 4:08:52In the end it's more interesting to see who those people really are.
4:08:52 > 4:08:55Did you try and reflect that in the picture?
4:08:55 > 4:09:02I think so. I reflect on that by showing them very real.
4:09:02 > 4:09:06So you see the legs of the Queen with your blood vessels and you see,
4:09:06 > 4:09:08you know, the neck and you see the hands and she looks
4:09:08 > 4:09:12like a... I mean, she doesn't look like a normal person because
4:09:12 > 4:09:15of the surrounding, but she looks like a person who will die one day
4:09:15 > 4:09:22and you know, it's a kind of humble portrait in a certain way.
4:09:26 > 4:09:28Perhaps by acknowledging the Queen's humanity,
4:09:28 > 4:09:31we can accept her elevated status.
4:09:35 > 4:09:39As usual with depicting a queen, it's a difficult balancing act.
4:09:41 > 4:09:46Over 500 years, artists have had to negotiate power
4:09:46 > 4:09:50and femininity, reconciling the roles of virgin, mother
4:09:50 > 4:09:54and wife with being a monarch.
4:09:54 > 4:09:58In the 21st century, it's become even more complicated.
4:10:00 > 4:10:03During the 60 years of Queen Elizabeth II's reign,
4:10:03 > 4:10:04Britain has changed.
4:10:04 > 4:10:07As a nation we're much less hierarchical, we're more informal
4:10:07 > 4:10:10and thankfully, today we no longer feel troubled by a woman
4:10:10 > 4:10:12ruling over us.
4:10:12 > 4:10:14And all of that means that contemporary artists
4:10:14 > 4:10:19face a new challenge, which is how in the 21st century to make
4:10:19 > 4:10:22a convincing modern portrait not necessarily of a queen,
4:10:22 > 4:10:24but of a monarch at all.
4:10:45 > 4:10:48Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd