Queen Elizabeth portrait at National Portrait Gallery, London

In the National Gallery, there were 2 paintings that caught my eye and stood out to me from the Elizabethan era... 

Unknown artist
oil on panel, early 17th century with 18th century overpainting

This portrait of Elizabeth was virtually all painted in the eighteenth century. However, recent technical analysis has revealed that this image was painted over the top of an early seventeenth-century portrait. Dendrochronology (tree-ring dating) indicates that the wood used for the panel was felled some time after 1604, just after the queen's death. Therefore the original portrait was posthumous, based on a pattern developed during Elizabeth's lifetime.

The reason I like this portrait is because you are able to see the power Queen Elizabeth had, by the way she is positioned, what she is wearing and just in general how she looks. You are clearly able to tell that her clothes and jewellery were extremely expensive and I think this is how a queen should be portrayed. 

I also like the fact that you are able to see colour in her face and have a clear idea of how she looked (to the extent possible, since she had to approve of images before anyone else could see them, otherwise they would be destroyed). It almost like she is actually smiling slightly as well, which is different and unusual to many other portraits of her. 

Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger
oil on canvas, circa 1592

Known as the 'Ditchley Portrait', this painting was produced for Sir Henry Lee who had been the Queen's Champion from 1559-90. It probably commemorates an elaborate symbolic entertainment which Lee organised for the Queen in September 1592, and which may have been held in the grounds of Lee's house at Ditchley, near Oxford, or at the nearby palace at Woodstock.. 

The portrait shows Elizabeth standing on the globe of the world, with her feet on Oxfordshire. The stormy sky, the clouds parting to reveal sunshine, and the inscriptions on the painting, make it plain that the portrait's symbolic theme is forgiveness. 

I like the concept of this image and the hidden meanings that it holds. But the main thing that captured my attention was the sheer size of it in person; and due to this, the outfit that Elizabeth is wearing largely dominates the picture. Norris describes this dress in Tudor Costume and Fashion as  "a white satin diagonally cross-barred with white silk puffings, having roses superimposed with ornaments of goldsmith's work set at the intersections. These gold ornaments vary in design; some have groups of four pearls, others oval rubies, and others again rectangular sapphires. The long-pointed bodice and sleeves are decorated in the same manner, but the hanging sleeveshave these ornaments set along the edges. The wired-out portions are the only parts of the veil visible. The headdress of crown-shape is a mass of rubies, pearls, and some spherical jewel of a brilliant red, with a pearl apex surmounting the whole structure. Other interesting details are the ropes of pearls hanging from the neck and the pearls on the wig, the pink rose set on the ruff, the decorated brown leather gloves in the left hand, and the Chinese fan, made to open and shut, attached by a coral-colored ribband to the waist girdle."

Reference: Tudor Costume and Fashion, pp.606-607 
http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw02079/Queen-Elizabeth-I-The-Ditchley-portrait?LinkID=mp01452&role=sit&rNo=10