'golden age' of elizabethan culture Flashcards
What was a large aspect of Shakespeare’s distinctive appeal?
His ability to appeal both to an educated elite and to the ‘groundlings’ who attended in large numbers.
What happened to English painting during Elizabeth’s reign?
It flourished, with artists benefitting from a range of patrons.
Formal portraiture remained important with the queen a frequent setter, as well as the Earl of Leicester, and sitters from the gentry.
What did formal portraiture lack during E’s reign?
An artist as skilful as Holbein had been during Henry VIII’s reign.
What became culturally the most important of Elizabethan painting?
The portrait miniature.
Who were most technically gifted exponents of the portrait miniature?
Nicholas Hilliard and Isaac Oliver.
Why was there a golden age in architecture during E’s reign?
The queen had been reluctant to commission new buildings, but her courtiers and other wealthy individuals made up for this lack having been able to afford extravagant building projects due to buying former monastic land.
This period saw the first name English architect, as they had previously been anonymous master masons.
Who was the first named English architect?
Robert Smythson, who’d worked on Longleat in Wiltshire and Wollaton Hall in Nottinghamshire, as well as on a series of other country houses.
What did increased educational opportunities of the 16th century lead to?
The emergence of a highly literate and often quite sophisticated viewing and reading public.
Who were some significant dramatists of the 16th century?
Shakespeare, Thomas Kyd, Christopher Marlowe.
What happened to infrastructure of plays?
Infrastructure for production of plays became increasingly sophisticated.
What was the most notable company of actors under patronage of courtiers?
The Lord Chamberlain’s Men, of which Shakespeare was a member.
What did the high competition amongst acting companies mean?
That there was an emphasis on ability to appeal to audiences drawn from across social classes.
What the most notorious Shakespeare play with direct political connotations?
The sponsoring at the Globe Theatre by supporters of the Earl of Essex, of Richard III, a medieval king who’d been the victim of usurpation in 1399.
What was prose literature like in E’s reign?
It tended to have a narrow readership.
What was an exception to the narrow readership of prose literature?
Foxe’s Book of Martyrs which had wide readership amongst ‘godly’ Puritans.
Who were 2 of the most influential writers in the 16th century?
Sir Philip Sidney and Edmund Spenser.
What did Sir Philip Sidney see himself as?
A conscious moderniser of the English language through the adaptation of classical forms.
What was Sir Philip Sidney largely responsible for in English poetry?
The revival of the sonnet, therefore being an essential precursor of Shakespeare.
Why were Sir Philip Sidney and Edmund Spenser political outsiders?
Some of their work can be seen as being highly critical of the Elizabethan court.
What was Elizabeth responsible for within music?
The settlement for saving the musical culture of English cathedrals and Oxbridge colleges which had been threatened by Protestant reformers who saw the importance of word of God rather than the ‘beauty of holiness’.
Who were the 2 greatest composers of E’s reign?
Thomas Tallis and William Byrd, who wrote extensively for the Church of England, despite both being Catholic.
How did Byrd display his Catholicism?
In works composed in secrecy for his Catholic patrons.
What type of music flourished during E’s reign, especially at court?
Secular music.
What did Renaissance convention lay down about music? What did this encourage the development of?
That courtiers should be skilled musically.
This encouraged the development of the madrigal, a musical form which originated in Italy.
