Speculative portrait of Sir Robert Dudley's ill-fated wife: Amy Robsart, who died under mysterious circumstance.
I believe her death was likely an unfortunate accident, and not the handiwork of some nefarious figure, and I sincerely doubt that if it were a murder that Elizabeth I, Robert Dudley, or any prominent members of court had anything to do with it. Her death was immediately suspicious, and if you've watch as many murder shows as I have, you know that someone marrying a new person right after the death of their first spouse always makes people wary. It is also said that she had a malady of the breast, implying she might have head breast cancer. Ultimately I decided I wanted to draw her because the clothing of the period is my favorite, she was the subject of a Parcast Unsolved Murders episode, and there is no definitive image of her, so there's lot's of room for imagination.
I based her face off a Teerlinc portrait miniature of a woman suspected to be either Amy Dudley/Robsart or Lady Jane Grey (who, funnily enough, also had the married name of Dudley, as they were sisters-in-law). I think it is more likely the image is of Amy, as the sitter is said to be 18 at the time of the painting, and Jane Grey likely died around the age of 16, and Amy turned 18 mere days after her wedding. Her clothing is based on some of my many reference images from the mid-16th century, in particular a portrait from 1565 of Mary Fitzalan by Eworth, but considering this imagined image is around 1553, I definitely looked at more contemporary portraits as well. The French hood is modeled very closely after the portrait miniature.
For some symbolism: Amy was Protestant, and devoutly so, which influenced my clothing style; as far as coloring and modesty, I did lean a little Reformed (aka, Calvinist), but kept her middle of the road, her clothing still rich from her father-in-laws influence; Elizabeth Tudor, for all her piety, could have worn something similar without causing a ruckus amongst her peers. The acorns are in turn a reference to the aforementioned portrait miniature, and the fact that Robert Dudley used the oak tree as a personal motif (possibly because his first name, Robert, is very similar to the Latin for oak, robur).
I kept her jewelry rather simple, with two exceptions: first, the tau cross, as a Protestant, it didn't feel right giving her a crucifix or a IHS pendant (like Katharine of Aragon or Jane Seymour, who were both Catholic/religiously conservative), but I did recall that Jane Seymour was painted by Horenbout with a similar tau cross, which seemed appropriately reserved but rich enough for a woman of her status; and there is the AR pendant, which is something completely of my imagination, I believe that I've drawn something similar before when coming up with ciphers for Anne Boleyn as Anna Regina, but to my knowledge no image of such exists (please correct me if you find one!), and it is a cipher of Amy and Dudley--there's also a small delight in the idea of her visiting her imprisoned husband, and throwing shade on the Catholic Mary I by wearing a nominally innocuous pendant that could, to the right eye, pay homage to her hated, evangelical step-mother.
I based her face off a Teerlinc portrait miniature of a woman suspected to be either Amy Dudley/Robsart or Lady Jane Grey (who, funnily enough, also had the married name of Dudley, as they were sisters-in-law). I think it is more likely the image is of Amy, as the sitter is said to be 18 at the time of the painting, and Jane Grey likely died around the age of 16, and Amy turned 18 mere days after her wedding. Her clothing is based on some of my many reference images from the mid-16th century, in particular a portrait from 1565 of Mary Fitzalan by Eworth, but considering this imagined image is around 1553, I definitely looked at more contemporary portraits as well. The French hood is modeled very closely after the portrait miniature.
For some symbolism: Amy was Protestant, and devoutly so, which influenced my clothing style; as far as coloring and modesty, I did lean a little Reformed (aka, Calvinist), but kept her middle of the road, her clothing still rich from her father-in-laws influence; Elizabeth Tudor, for all her piety, could have worn something similar without causing a ruckus amongst her peers. The acorns are in turn a reference to the aforementioned portrait miniature, and the fact that Robert Dudley used the oak tree as a personal motif (possibly because his first name, Robert, is very similar to the Latin for oak, robur).
I kept her jewelry rather simple, with two exceptions: first, the tau cross, as a Protestant, it didn't feel right giving her a crucifix or a IHS pendant (like Katharine of Aragon or Jane Seymour, who were both Catholic/religiously conservative), but I did recall that Jane Seymour was painted by Horenbout with a similar tau cross, which seemed appropriately reserved but rich enough for a woman of her status; and there is the AR pendant, which is something completely of my imagination, I believe that I've drawn something similar before when coming up with ciphers for Anne Boleyn as Anna Regina, but to my knowledge no image of such exists (please correct me if you find one!), and it is a cipher of Amy and Dudley--there's also a small delight in the idea of her visiting her imprisoned husband, and throwing shade on the Catholic Mary I by wearing a nominally innocuous pendant that could, to the right eye, pay homage to her hated, evangelical step-mother.
