Power and Portraiture in Early Modern Literature

In early modern England, literary representations of miniatures as tools to express either desire or authority correlate with the use of miniatures at Court, where Queen Elizabeth I and her courtiers invested the small, jeweled portraits with emotional and social value. Examining the use of miniatures in Philip Sidney's The New Arcadia and Shakespeare's comedies Twelfth Night and The Merchant of Venice, this article argues that the literary examples of portraiture in use, which were inspired by the unique circumstances of Elizabeth's reign, suggest that portraiture was one means for aristocratic individuals to express themselves and exert agency, significantly, regardless of gender.