Chrysogna Baker - Elizabethan Portraits

Chrysogna Baker

CHRYSOGNA BAKER (1571 - 1616)

Chrysogna (or Chrysogona) Baker was the daughter of Sir Richard Baker of Sissinghurst, Kent (1546-May 27, 1594) and his second wife, Mary Giffard(1551-May 1609). The queen visited Sissinghurst when Chrysogna was two, in 1573. She had a dowry of £2,200 when she married Henry Lennard of Chevening, Kent and Hurstmonceaux Castle, Sussex. Portrait: at age six in 1579 (at The Vyne).

I think this portrait is very symbolic as she is dressed in white which is the worst colour to keep clean. This shows that she has servants to do her laundry for her and that she lives in a clean house and that she does not have to do anything manual. White was also associated with purity and virginity. I think this comes from the legend of the ermine, which was prized for its tail of pure white fur with a black tip. According to legend, the ermine would rather die than getting its pure white coat dirty and it, therefore, came to stand for purity. It features in many of Elizabeth I’s portraits as a status symbol as only royalty and people of high noble birth were allowed to wear it. Chrysogna’s dress also has embroidery of gold thread that would have been very expensive and the embroidery would have taken many hours to do. She wears gold chains on her dress and gold chains round her neck. Her skin is painted as almost impossibly white to show that she is rich and does not need to go outside and expose her skin to the sun and wind. She is holding a Tudor rose, symbol of her allegiance to Elizabeth I and that she is related to the royal family. The rose is also an emblem standing for beauty and I believe shows that she is engaged. The Tudor rose was created by combining the emblem of the House of Lancaster (red rose) with that of the House of York (white rose). These rival houses were united in 1486 by the marriage of the Lancastrian Henry VII and Elizabeth of York after the “war of the roses” a civil war between two very powerful English families. The Tudor rose was used in portraits to refer to the Tudor dynasty and the unity that it brought to the realm. The rose also had religious connections which were important in those days, as the medieval symbol of the Virgin Mary, and was adopted by the Virgin Queen.

Her hair, which may have been a wig, is red and she has a very high forehead. Her hairline may have been plucked or powdered to give her a “high brow” appearance which was a symbol of noble birth. Her hair appears to have been shaped around a padded wire frame and tightly woven with plaits to give a very intricate design and the fashionable heart shape at the front.