The Rainbow Portrait and the Faery Queen

[Paul Ferguson]

"This work re-interprets the symbolism of the emblematic "Rainbow" portrait (c. 1600) of Elizabeth I. The traditional title comes from the identification of the rainbow in the portrait as that of Genesis 9:13. In fact, as this work demonstrates, it is the philosophers' rainbow, a cryptonym for the colors--black, red, white--of the three stages of alchemic transmutation: purification, illumination, perfection. Elizabeth is represented as the Faery Queen, the alchemical monarch."

Robert Gibson Robertson III

Louisiana State Univ.

https://repository.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/6549/

Full text available with the Download button

[Paul Ferguson]

I suspect a similar alchemical colour symbolism is at work in the Paston Treasure - see ‘The Pastons’.