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The Drake Jewel is a precious pendant given to Sir Francis Drake by Queen Elizabeth I to show her gratitude. The pendant is on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London. [1] [2]
Elizabeth I had the pendant created especially for Drake, by a renowned artisan, as a demonstration of gratitude. [3] Drake's Jewel was created by Nicholas Hilliard and given to Drake before 1591, possibly to celebrate England's victory against the Spanish Armada in 1588. Drake was painted by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger in 1591 and is shown wearing the jewel. [2] Drake valued this pendant more than any of his other possessions. [3]
After Drake's death in 1596, the jewel passed to Thomas Drake, his brother, and upon his death in 1637, to Thomas's widow. She sold the Jewel to her daughters for £3000 (about £101 million today). [2]
On the front, the jewel shows a cameo of what appears to be an African man and possibly a European woman or a clean-shaven man in Roman style. [1] [4] The reverse opens to show a painting of Elizabeth I and a phoenix. [2] The African figure is wearing a cape, which could be a paludamentum, cape of Roman commanders and emperors. The portraits are watercolour on vellum, surrounded by rubies, diamonds and pearls. [2]
The images on the jewel are open to interpretation;
David Shields of the Omohundro Institute writes that the images suggest that the joint effort of the African and English will liberate the world from Spain, such as Drake's alliance with the Cimarron and Elizabeth's alliance with Ahmad al-Mansur against the Spanish. [1] The Cimarron alliance connection was also noted by Miranda Kaufmann, Nikki Marmery and Duane Van Dieman. [5] [6] [7] Historian John Sugden states: "One of the subjects is a white European, an Englishman or possibly even a woman. The other is a black African. There is no suggestion that one figure is superior to the other. They stand side by side, as equals, allies perhaps, or friends." [4]
Karen Dalton, reinterpreting the concept of visual culture to the English Renaissance and defining the otherness of race, ethnicity and gender in the essay "Art For the Sake of Dynasty: The Black Emperor in the Drake Jewel and Elizabethan Imperial Imagery", writes that the jewel is a manifestation of the queen herself and of her imperial aspirations. The black emperor is Saturn the ruler of the Golden Age. The woman is the Virgin Astraea who will return Saturn to the throne. [8] V&A also noted this interpretation. [2] Kevin Jackson in Chronicles of London writes that the regal lady is presumably Elizabeth I herself and the African man is presumably a slave. [3]
The phoenix in the jewel is one of Elizabeth I's most used images, depicting peace, rebirth and virtue. [8]
Sir Francis Drake was an English explorer and privateer best known for his circumnavigation of the world in a single expedition between 1577 and 1580. This was the first English circumnavigation, and third circumnavigation overall. He is also known for participating in the early English slaving voyages of his cousin, Sir John Hawkins, and John Lovell. Having started as a simple seaman, in 1588 he was part of the fight against the Spanish Armada as a vice-admiral.
Ptolemy of Mauretania was the last Roman client king and ruler of Mauretania for Rome. He was the son of Juba II, the king of Numidia and a member of the Berber Massyles tribe, as well as a descendant of the Ptolemaic dynasty via his mother Cleopatra Selene II.
Admiral Sir John Hawkins was an English naval commander, naval administrator, privateer and slave trader.
Nicholas Hilliard was an English goldsmith and limner best known for his portrait miniatures of members of the courts of Elizabeth I and James I of England. He mostly painted small oval miniatures, but also some larger cabinet miniatures, up to about 10 inches tall, and at least two famous half-length panel portraits of Elizabeth. He enjoyed continuing success as an artist, and continuing financial troubles, for forty-five years. His paintings still exemplify the visual image of Elizabethan England, very different from that of most of Europe in the late sixteenth century. Technically he was very conservative by European standards, but his paintings are superbly executed and have a freshness and charm that has ensured his continuing reputation as "the central artistic figure of the Elizabethan age, the only English painter whose work reflects, in its delicate microcosm, the world of Shakespeare's earlier plays."
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Rowland Lockey was an English painter and goldsmith, and was the son of Leonard Lockey, a crossbow maker of the parish of St Bride's, Fleet Street, London. Lockey was apprenticed to Queen Elizabeth's miniaturist and goldsmith Nicholas Hilliard for eight years beginning Michaelmas 1581 and was made a freeman or master of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths by 1600.
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The Armada Portrait of Elizabeth I of England is the name of any of three surviving versions of an allegorical panel painting depicting the Tudor queen surrounded by symbols of royal majesty against a backdrop representing the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588.
Robert Peake the Elder was an English painter active in the later part of Elizabeth I's reign and for most of the reign of James I. In 1604, he was appointed picture maker to the heir to the throne, Prince Henry; and in 1607, serjeant-painter to King James I – a post he shared with John De Critz.
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Francis Drake's circumnavigation, also known as Drake's Raiding Expedition, was an important historical maritime event that took place between 15 December 1577 and 26 September 1580. The expedition was authorised by Queen Elizabeth I and consisted of five ships led by Francis Drake. Termed a 'voyage of discovery', it was in effect an ambitious covert raiding voyage and the start of England's challenge to the global domination of Spain and Portugal.
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The Pelican Portrait is an oil painting of Elizabeth I of England on a wood panel, named for the pelican pendant shown on Elizabeth's breast. It is generally attributed to Nicholas Hilliard, on the basis of a scientific study and similarities to his other work.
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