Political Allegory, Absolutist Ideology, and the “Rainbow Portrait” of Queen Elizabeth I*

It is somewhat surprising, given the nature of royal investment in various forms of political and religious iconography associated with Renaissance portraiture, that the well-known “Rainbow Portrait” (c. 1600-03; fig. 1) of Queen Elizabeth I, held by Robert Cecil, Lord of Salisbury at Hatfield House, but of unknown provenance, has not received sufficient attention to its political allegories. Much has been made of the religious symbolism associated with the portrait, especially by René Graziani, who argues, for example, that “Elizabeth wears the gauntlet on her ruff in right of her title,Fidei Defensor, official champion of the Christian religion” (255), and that the hair style of the Queen with its “Thessalonian bride allusion … [contributes] to thesponsa Deitheme” (259).