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Based on a lifetime's work in the field, Sir Roy Strong offers an expert and engaging new look at portrait painting in Stuart England, studying the sitters as much as the artists.Sir Roy Strong has been writing for over half a century on the painters of the courts of James I and Charles I. While taking account of the mass of scholarly work that has appeared during that time, this book offers a very different approach to the subject. Until now, the universal method has been to look at the artists, in particular van Dyck, and to see half a century of painting through the six years when the latter was in England. Instead, we are offered a view based on portraits and their sitters, and particularly on the dramatic change in their attitudes, from the still medieval (if Protestant) aesthetic of the Elizabethan age to the ambiguity of one which replaced that aesthetic by one based on the Catholic baroque of European art.Portraits after all are permanent records of how a sitter wished to be seen by posterity as well as in his or her own period. The obsession with the painter and with attribution has tended to obscure that very basic fact. They are inevitably self-fashioning images that chart the new mythology not only of a new dynasty, the Stuarts, but also of a burgeoning and assertive aristocracy. Unlike their spectacular court masques, however, which were gone in an evening of glory, the portraits are still with us - or, rather, those that have survived. Through them we are able to trace a new iconography for a new dynasty and also an aesthetic revolution which moved away from the Elizabethan world of ambiguity and hieroglyphs to one set in space defined by the new optics of the Renaissance. But the title, The Stuart Image, is designed to emphasise that above all what we see is the image and not the reality.

The definitive history of coronations and the Royal Family, from acclaimed writer Roy Strong. ’What is the finest sight in the world? A Coronation.What do people talk most about? A Coronation.What is delightful to have passed? A Coronation.’Horace Walpole, 1761 As a boy of sixteen, Roy Strong watched the grand procession carrying Queen Elizabeth II to her coronation. The spectacle was considered the greatest public event of the century. But now, so many years later, many people have little notion of what a coronation is and are unaware of the rich resonances of the ritual, or its deep significance in terms of the committal of monarch to people.This book is the first of its kind – a comprehensive history that sets each coronation into its political, social, religious and cultural context. The story is one of constant re-invention as the service has had to respond to all the changes in fortune of the monarchy or the country: everything from legitimising usurpers to reconciling a Catholic rite to the tenets of Protestantism. It even had to be recreated from scratch after the Restoration of Charles II in 1660. In this way, Strong tells the story of the British monarchy since the tenth century, and looks forward to the coronation of King Charles III. The musical history alone is one of extraordinary richness – involving Henry Purcell, Handel, Edward Elgar, William Walton – plus the celebratory poetry, the art and the spectacular engravings published at coronations are all explored, as is the more recent role of photographers. The book particularly concentrates on post-1603 developments, including the incredible story of the Stuarts, when the crown jewels used for hundreds of years at coronations were melted down as symbols of the hated Divine Right of Kings.As Charles III succeeds to the throne and preparations are made for his coronation, Strong speculates as to the revisions now called for to its ritual and pageantry to meet the changes in the role of the monarchy in the twenty-first century.

The new paperback edition of Roy Strong's popular introduction to Elizabethan portraitureWritten for the general reader, Roy Strong’s popular introduction to Elizabethan portraiture synthesizes scholarship and research on this subject into a concise introduction to the Elizabethan aesthetic. Strong surveysthe entirety of Elizabeth I’s reign from the Procession Picture to the Rainbow Portrait (1600–1602). A range of social aspects of Elizabethan portraiture are explored, such as patronage, symbolic self-fashioning, Elizabethan pageantry and melancholic humor. Strong reveals the Elizabethan approach to portraiture, while demonstrating a new way to look at these paintings. From celebrated portraits of the Queen and paintings of knights and courtiers, to works depicting an aspiring 'middle class’, Strong presents a detailed and authoritative examination of one of the most fascinating periods of British art.

Published to mark the artist's 90th birthday, this is the first and only book to provide an overview of Bryan Organ, one of the world's great portrait painters. This book tells the story of Bryan Organ, whose works have been commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery more than any other 20th-century painter. It is itself a portrait, one that draws on his beginnings on the school cricket pitch and at art college as well as his time sketching others in recording studios, on the polo field and at the Elysée Palace. It tells the stories of his most important paintings, his friendship with Graham Sutherland, and his endless experimentation with movement, space and form. For the first time, it offers a contextual overview of his paintings, drawings, prints and sketches from the 1950s to today. Whether painting Prince Charles, Sir Harold Macmillan, Elton John, President Mitterrand or pigeon fanciers Mr and Mrs Sharples, Organ’s strategy is to find a point of contact with his sitters and get to know them. As this beautiful book illustrates, his acute powers of observation, his facility as a draughtsman and meticulous painting technique enable him to create a psychological likeness that feels like a real human encounter. Despite his success, Organ has always shunned the limelight. When his controversial 1970 portrait of Princess Margaret hit the front pages, he found it difficult to cope with the uproar and retreated to France. Some ten years later, his portrait of Princess Diana was slashed by an anti-monarchist, and Organ decided that enough was enough. Since then, he has continued to work quietly, but refuses to be involved in any exhibitions and avoids all press coverage. Organ provided unprecedented access to his entire archive for this book, the only overview of his illustrious career.

Shakespeare's potent use of garden imagery has captivated successive generations of readers and inspired the making of gardens across the globe. Laced with quotations and abounding with illustrations drawn from sources including Elizabethan gardening books, embroidered fabrics and hand-coloured herbals, The Quest for Shakespeare's Garden tells the story of the Bard's own garden at New Place in Stratford-upon-Avon, revealing its place in garden history.

A work of great learning and skilful synthesis, beautifully illustrated. SUNDAY TIMESThe spectacular festivals mounted by the princes of the Renaissance were both a marriage of the arts and a complex and subtle expression of political theory. From the Renaissance festivals ballet, opera and even the proscenium arch theatre are derived. Festivals are therefore a vital part of European cultural history. Here Roy Strong provides a guide to theirorigins and purpose, and their lasting influence.

'A triumph' INDEPENDENT'A thought-provoking and indispensable book' DAILY MAIL'An instant classic ... I have been reading it with unalloyed admiration and delight' EVENING STANDARDRoy Strong has written an exemplary introduction to the history of Britain, as first designated by the Romans. It is a brilliant and balanced account of successive ages bound together by a compelling narrative which answers the questions: 'Where do we come from?' and 'Where are we going?'Beginning with the earliest recorded Celtic times, and ending with the present day of Brexit Britain, it is a remarkable achievement. With his passion, enthusiasm and wide-ranging knowledge, he is the ideal narrator. His book should be read by anyone, anywhere, who cares about Britain's national past, national identity and national prospects.