Anecdotes of PAINTING, &c. 



CHAP. VIL 



Painters in the Reign of ^een Elizabeth. 



TH E long and remarkable reign of this 

 Princefs could not but furnifh many 

 opportunities to artifts of fignalizing them- 

 felves. There is no evidence that Eliza- 

 beth had much tafte for painting ; but Ihe 

 loved picflures of herfelf. In them Ihe could 

 appear really handfome ; and yet to do the 

 profefTion jullice, they feem to have flatter- 

 ed her the leaft of all her dependents : 

 There is not a fingle portrait of her that 

 one can call beautifull. The profufion of 

 ornaments with which they are loaded, are 

 marks of her continual fondnefs for drefs, 

 while they entirely exclude all grace, and 

 leave no more room for a painter's genius 

 than if he had been employed to copy an 

 Indian idol, totally compofed of hands and 

 necklaces. A pale Roman nofe, a head of 

 hair loaded with crowns and powdered witli 



diamonds, 

 7 



