Elizabeth I's Ruthless Portraits at Philip Mould Gallery

Philip Mould Gallery in London presents 'Elizabeth I: Queen & Court', an exhibition of Tudor portraits tracing the calculated evolution of Elizabeth I's public image from modest princess to godlike monarch. The show includes four paintings of Elizabeth, ranging from the 'Clopton Portrait' (c. 1558) where she appears as a mortal in black with a prayer book, to a 1590s portrait where her face is pallid from white lead makeup and her regalia transforms her into a rigid symbol of power. Also on view are portraits of her chief advisor William Cecil, Lord Burghley, and her favorite Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. A concealed portrait of John Stubbs, whose right hand was amputated for pamphleteering against Elizabeth's proposed marriage to the Duke of Anjou, is hidden behind a sliding panel; the reverse shows the severed hand as a relic of her ruthless reign. The exhibition runs through July 10.