You gotta love the Rainbow Portrait. Elizabeth I in masque costume declaring that there are no rainbows without the sun. Herself, of course, being the sun.
I became entranced by emblems and impresa and other types of badges and temporary heraldry ages ago, but Michael Bath's book Emblems for a Queen about the emblems in Mary Queen of Scots embroideries really solidified my fascination. Ursula George's article on Impresa convinced me I needed to devise my own and spread the word so other people would make them too. The class I'm teaching follows along with her article pretty closely. It's just that good, clear, and concise. My presentation has several of the portraits she links to, a generous selection of my favorite emblems from Alciato's Book of Emblems (I love the fact that you can put the Latin and English on facing pages for comparison) and another big helping of images from Claude Paradin's Emblems Heroiques (the English translation)
If you have any desire to read my goofy newletter article introducing impresa, particularly in reference to Mary's embroideries, you can read it here. One more class to add to my A&S 50 challenge.
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