A snake hidden in the portrait of Elizabeth I drawn in the 16th century appears

In the 16th century,Tudor morningThe absolute monarch of EnglandElizabeth ISpeaking of which, there are anecdotes that portraits with wrinkles are not left because they ordered not to put a shadow (= wrinkle) in the portrait, but about 400 years ago from now, Elizabeth I was 50 to 60 years old The snake's figure painted in one piece of portrait which is said to have been drawn appears with the aged deterioration of the painting and is calling a mystery.

Details are as below.Mysterious image of snake appears on 400 - year - old painting of Queen Elizabeth I | Mail Online

The portrait was drawn in the early 1580s and early 1590s, I do not know the name of the painter. In LondonNational Portrait GalleryIn the collection, it is said that there was never been exhibited since 1921, but following the appearance of this snake, as a feature of the exhibition "Concealed and Revealed: The Changing Faces of Elizabeth I" March 13, 2010 It is said that it will be on display from Sunday through September 26.


Snakes came up from below the flowers that Elizabeth I had. Initially it seems that a painter who painted a snake to clasp the Queen's hand painted with an adorable bouquet afraid to take the things snake symbolizes in a bad meaning.


Infrared photograph of hand part.


Reproduction of figure before drawing snake painted based on photograph.


According to the announcement of the National Portrait Gallery, the snakes are black in general, have a greenish blue scales, and almost certainly they were imagined, not sketches.

Although a snake is sometimes described as a symbol of wisdom, discrimination, reasonable judgment, etc., at the same time in ChristianitySatanYaoriginal sinThere is also a connection to. thisAllegoryIt seems that the ambiguity of the reason is thought to be the reason why a snake is erased from a portrait.

Also, the portrait of Elizabeth I is drawn on another unfinished portrait of a woman, it is unknown who this woman is, but it is attributed to a different painter than the author of the Queen's portrait It seems to be possible. At that time it was not unusual for recycled materials of paintings to be recycled, so there seems to be no particular deep meaning to the filled women.