An Allegorical Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I, by English School (1610, c.)

An Allegorical Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I, by English School (1610, c.)

This painting represents Queen Elizabeth I sitting and with her head resting on her right hand. Two cherubs appear above her head holding a crown, an old man (Old Father Time) appears on the left, and a skeleton with an hourglass appears on the right. The skeleton does not have any visible gender traits.
Gender perspective: This is a rare painting because it represents a woman accompanied by a skeleton that is not a vanitas of death and beauty but of loss of power. Death is represented as an old man (Old Father Time) on the left, who is mimicking her gesture, and also as an asexual skeleton on the right. The crown and the scepter are carried by cherubs, perhaps in allusion to her lack of descendants. The crown then becomes the loss of the virgin crown of the supposed Virgin Queen once death has arrived, which in this case makes virginity useless.

English School (Unknown)

Corsham Court, Wiltshire, UK
http://www.corsham-court.co.uk/Pictures/Commentary.html

Archived in:
https://web.archive.org/web/20200205072633/http://www.corsham-court.co.uk/Pictures/Commentary.html

Wikimedia Commons:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Elizabeth-I-Allegorical-Po.jpg

Archived in:
https://web.archive.org/web/20201015081226/https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Elizabeth-I-Allegorical-Po.jpg

1610, c.

Painting.
Dimensions: Unknown