I wrote my first Catherine of Braganza post about a decade ago. In it, I expressed how a certain painting of her cracked me up.
“Catherine was bold enough to remind them [mistresses of the King] she was the only one who held the title of queen.
For example, look closely at this portrait.
An accident? It’s almost as if she’s pointing at the crown. Time went on, and most of her portraits included the crown and sovereign orb.”
That painting was still in my mind when doing the collage book. I decided the crown needed to be bigger and more visible.
(Plus the late Elizabeth II’s philosophy about being seen is applicable.)
I hope Catherine wouldn’t mind me adding some sparkly nail polish to her dress and drawing the crown and orb bigger that also includes sparkling jewelry and lace trimming tape. Part of the image she and her advisors stressed was she’s someone who didn’t care about glitzy stuff. But maybe this art work would make it super, SUPER clear that the sitter was truly the top royal woman.
