Blanche Parry Make-up Design

Contemporary Portrait

Sitter - Taylor Swift : Singer-songwriter, actress, philanthropist (a person who seeks to promote the welfare of others, especially by the generous donation of money to good causes).


Why was it taken? This image was taken for the single cover to promote her new song 'Love Story'.

Taylor Swift posed on the set of her "Love Story" video shoot.
Photo Credit: Big Machine Records
What are the symbolic references within the portrait? This image denotes Taylor Swift in dress that mirrors/is similar to type of dress worn by Elizabeth before she became queen as her dresses were smaller and more delicate. Also within this image there is a painting in the background which makes this image very different and not at all modern as there are also pillars in the background which connotes that the building she was filming her music video in was very old and possibly fragile. Within this image the way that Taylor Swift is standing as her posture is very straight and up right white gives her more of a dominant and fierce looking which suggests she is powerful.

What does the clothing say about the sitter?
The clothing Taylor is wearing suggests that she is a princess of some king and looks extremely elegant and feminine as the dress is very delicate and shows how slim and delicate Taylor Swift is. 

Within portraits these days they don't really include symbolic objects as the portraits are 

more about the models/sitters. However they do sometimes wear certain pieces of clothing that suggest how wealthy they are of what things they like. In modern times the clothes worn by the model/sitter say more about them than the objects in the background which shows how times have changed and how the model is the main focus of the image.

In this lesson we learned that there is much more to the images we are looking at as there are symbols everywhere to denote the wealth of the sitter and what they are like as a person which was interesting to see/look at.


References;
CMT: Photos: Taylor Swift’s photos from ‘Love Story’: Taylor Swift in ‘Love Story’ (1 of 6) (2015) Available at: http://www.cmt.com/pictures/taylor-swifts-photos-from-love-story/1594744/3176924/photo.jhtml (Accessed: 10 December 2015).

Elizabethan Portrait

Sitter - Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603), Reigned 1558-1603. Sitter associated with 125 portraits.

Artist - Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger (1561 or 1562-1636), Painter. Artist associated with 28 portraits, Sitter in 2 portraits.

Why was it painted? It probably commemorates an elaborate symbolic entertainment which Lee organised for the Queen in September 1592, and which may have been held in the grounds of Lee's house at Ditchley, near Oxford, or at the nearby palace at Woodstock.

What symbolic references are within the portrait? The portrait shows Elizabeth standing on the globe of the world, with her feet on Oxford shire. The stormy sky, the clouds parting to reveal sunshine, and the inscriptions on the painting, make it plain that the portrait's symbolic theme is forgiveness.

What does the clothing say about the sitter? The sitters clothing suggests that she is extremely wealthy as her dress is embroidered  and very elegant.

References;
Back to topThis portrait (2015) Available at: http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw02079/Queen-Elizabeth-I-The-Ditchley-portrait (Accessed: 10 December 2015).

Symbols within Portraits

Symbols within Portraits

This lesson was very helpful before we went to the portrait gallery as it made us look into the portraits more and helped us analyse the symbols within the portrait which suggests the sitters status and personality. This also helped us when trying to decide what kind of hairstyles and what type of makeup we would like to create in our final designs as we are able to see what Elizabethan hairstyles are actually like.

Within portraits these days they don't really include symbolic objects as the portraits are 

more about the models/sitters. However they do sometimes wear certain pieces of clothing that

suggest how wealthy they are of what things they like. In modern times the clothes worn by the model/sitter say more about them than the objects in the background which shows how times have changed and how the model is the main focus of the image.

In this lesson we learned that there is much more to the images we are looking at as there are symbols everywhere to denote the wealth of the sitter and what they are like as a person which was interesting to see/look at.

The seminar was very straight forward and wasn't at all hard to follow which made it easy to take notes as sometimes i struggle to keep up with the slides. After this lesson we went to the National Portrait Gallery and looked in the tudor section at Elizabethan style portraits to see what symbolic objects were used and we were required to find a portrait we like and research it when we got back to see what the symbols actually represent. I made sure I carried this research out a few days after the trip as I wasn't sure which portrait I liked the most.

National Portrait Gallery

Sitter - Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603), Reigned 1558-1603. Sitter associated with 125 portraits.

Artist - Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger (1561 or 1562-1636), Painter. Artist associated with 28 portraits, Sitter in 2 portraits.

Why was it painted? It probably commemorates an elaborate symbolic entertainment which Lee organised for the Queen in September 1592, and which may have been held in the grounds of Lee's house at Ditchley, near Oxford, or at the nearby palace at Woodstock.

What symbolic references are within the portrait? The portrait shows Elizabeth standing on the globe of the world, with her feet on Oxford shire. The stormy sky, the clouds parting to reveal sunshine, and the inscriptions on the painting, make it plain that the portrait's symbolic theme is forgiveness.

What does the clothing say about the sitter? The sitters clothing suggests that she is extremely wealthy as her dress is embroidered  and very elegant.

• In this portrait Queen Elizabeth is standing on a globe which denotes that she has a lot of power and is above everyone else.
• Queen Elizabeth’s dress is very big and puffy and the shoulders on the dress are almost shaped as wings which could connote that she is very powerful and wise.
• Also in the background of the painting half denotes lightning and the other half is a blue sky. This could also fit into showing how powerful she is and how much control she actually has.

References;

Back to topThis portrait (2015) Available at: http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw02079/Queen-Elizabeth-I-The-Ditchley-portrait (Accessed: 10 December 2015).

Tudor cosmetics

The use of cosmetics or make-up was frowned upon at some points in history. However make-up also had a practical use to hide the scarring of various diseases such as smallpox. 

Perfumes were popular together with the use of creams and unguents to soften the skin. These were made from ingredients such as using honey, beeswax and sesame seed oil. 
During the Crusades, Europe was introduced to the cosmetic products used in the Middle East. Perfumes were popular and produced from flowers such as roses, water lilies and violets. 
The eye make-up used in the Middle East concentrated in providing colour to their eye lashes, eye lids and eye brows. 

A type of rouge made from red ochre was used to stain their lips and cheeks and a form of henna was used to paint their nails and colour their hair. 

Queen Elizabeth I set the fashions and as she grew older she more wore elaborate make-up which was useful for hiding wrinkles and other signs of ageing. 
Queen Elizabeth had contracted small pox which had left some slight scarring on her face. As she grew older the heavy white make-up which she favoured helped to hide this and maintain her illusion of beauty and image as the 'Virgin Queen'.

Queen Elizabeth did have the natural attributes of this ideal image of beauty but she enhanced and exaggerated the image by using white make-up. This explains the odd white face make-up seen in many of her portraits. The favoured application of the upper classes was a make-up called ceruse which was a mixture of white lead and vinegar. Unfortunately was poisonous. The acquisition of a pale complexion was so desirable that rich Tudor women were bled to achieve the desired pale look. Face paint made from plant roots and leaves was also applied. The look was completed with an application of an expensive rouge made from cochineal (a scarlet dye used for colouring food, made from the crushed dried bodies of a female scale insect) to stain the cheeks and the lips. Madder (A red dye obtained from these roots) and vermilion (A brilliant red pigment made from mercury sulphide (cinnabar) was also used to achieve this reddening effect). Kohl was used to darken the eyelashes, another element of make-up which was imported from the Middle East during the crusades.

Rich Tudor women followed the fashion of light hair dyed their hair yellow. The yellow hair dye was made from a mixture of saffron, cumin seed, celandine and oil. Wigs and hairpieces were also popular and Queen Elizabeth I had a wide variety of wigs, periwigs and hair pieces which numbered over eighty. 

To make the hands and face white:

Take leaves and roots of nettle and boil them in water and with this water wash your hands and face and they will become white and soft. 

To cure redness of the face:

Take white lead [ceruse], rose water and violet oil and mix together and anoint the face.

To keep the teeth tight in the jaw:

Take a cup of plantain water and boil in it these things: tragacanth putty, 1 on. rock alum, and make very fine powder out of all these and Boil them for half an hour in said water and with said water wash the gums frequently.

To seal the teeth:

Take fresh olive leaves and make a juice from them, then the same amount of onion juice and mix together, and put in an ampolla and put in the sun for 4 days, then Bathe and rub the teeth they will seal well.

To make powder to make teeth white:
Take coral and rock alum burned and ground very well and pass through a sieve and use.

A lot of these products/ingredients to make the cosmetics were dangerous as they probably didn't know the dangers of them or what they could do to them which just goes to show that not many people really cared about the consequences of these products and just wanted to look like queen Elizabeth whether it meant harming or damaging their skin. 
Reading through the types of things they used as ingredients to make cosmetics and not knowing what half of them are shows how they used random things to make them look more 'elizabethan' as everyone looked up to her which in a way wasn't good as it meant people used harmful recipes to make their own cosmetics to get pure white skin or rouge lips.

References;
Cosmetics recipes (2012) Available at: https://sites.eca.ed.ac.uk/renaissancecosmetics/cosmetics-recipes/ (Accessed: 10 December 2015).