The culmination of the English Renaissance and the "Golden Age" of art, literature and music (23) Flashcards
What heavily influenced Flemish models?
English paintings which flourished during Elizabeth’s reign, with artists benefiting from a range of patrons.
What remained important?
Formal portraiture, with the queen a frequent sitter as were courtiers, especially the Earl of Leicester, along with sitters from the gentry and mercantile classes.
What did Formal portraiture lack?
An artist as skilful as Holbein had been during the reign of Henry VIII.
What became culturally the most important aspect of Elizabethan painting?
The portrait miniature, whose most technically gifted exponents were Nicholas Hilliard and Isaac Oliver.
What was it the golden age in?
Architecture
What was the queen reluctant to do?
Commission new buildings, but her courtiers and other wealthy individuals made up for this lack, often being able to afford extravagant building projects because of the family acquisition of former monastic land at knock-down prices.
What did this period see the first?
Named English architect, Robert Smythson.
What did Robert Smythson do?
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 lead to?
Highly literate and often quite sophisticated viewing and reading public.
What was the viewing public treated to?
Plays, not just by Shakespeare, but also by significant dramatists such as Thomas Kyd and Christopher Marlowe.
What did companies of actors operate under?
The patronage of courtiers, most importantly the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, of which Shakespeare was a member.
What did the companies operate within?
A competitive market environment at theatres such as the Globe and the Swan.
What was the most notorious?
The sponsoring of the Globe Theatre by supporters of the Earl of Essex of a performance of Richard II.
Who were the two most influential writers?
1) Sir Philip Sidney
2) Edmund Spenser
What did Sidney see himself as?
A conscious moderniser of the English language through the adaptation of classical forms.
