Marriage Portraits of James I (VI) and Anne of Denmark: Representative Potential and its Realization

Abstract

In the article, the author analyzed the representative potential of marital and family portraits of the English King James I and Anne of Denmark. The author also considered the role of these portraits in creating and promoting the image of royal power. The methodological basis of the study was the methods of art history, such as iconography and iconology classical methods. The use of political iconography approaches became especially important for research. A total of 10 images were discovered, examined, and analyzed, including engravings (8), the painting (1), and the medal (1). The small number of discovered sources indicates two points. First, some of the portraits were destroyed during the revolutionary events of the middle – second half of the 17th century, known as the «English Revolution». Second, marital portraits did not play a significant role in the representative practices of King James I, who was oriented towards the representative practices of his predecessor, Elizabeth I Tudor. At the same time, the institution of the royal family remained an important and exemplary role model for the entire society. Visual sources supported this model. In particular, in the revealed and analyzed portraits, the king appears as the head of the family (paterfamilias), an example to follow, a bearer of knightly virtues and ideals. If marital portraits are an example of the superimposition of two figures (King James I and Queen consort Anne of Denmark), almost not united in terms of plot and composition, then family portraits, on the contrary, need to be more structured. Family portraits unite, as a rule, the predecessors and sometimes the predecessors of the dynasty. Artists Willem van de Passe and Gerrit Mountain depict a family tree and deceased persons. The purpose of these portraits is to construct the dynasty’s history, emphasize its legitimacy, glorify its future, and promote the children in the social (court) hierarchy.