A previously unrecorded portrait miniature of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth I is expected to fetch £80,000 at auction.
The portrait by artist Nicholas Hilliard will go under the hammer at London auction house Christie’s on June 5.
Hilliard is thought to have painted the image between 1595 and 1600, during the final years of Elizabeth’s reign.
The portrait portrays the queen as the mythological character Cynthia, Queen of the Seas and Land and depicts her looking younger than her true age - she would have been in her 60s at the time.
Other known versions of the piece are held in two collections at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, with another among the British Royal Collection. All the versions are slightly different, with variations in costume, background and all depicting the monarch as different mythological figures.
Hilliard was renowned for his ability to paint glittering jewellery and the detailed fabrics of his subjects’ costumes.
In his portrait of Elizabeth her costume is painted with more than one hundred pearls and other jewels.
The piece is one of 17 portrait miniatures from a private collection going up for auction.
© bangshowbiz.biz
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