Pelican & Phoenix

For one week only - from today to 19 September - these two portraits of Queen Elizabeth I are being shown together for the first time in 25 years at the National Portrait Gallery in London. They are both thought to have been painted by Nicholas Hilliard. Both are named after the jewels the queen is wearing: The Pelican and The Phoenix. They were both painted on wood, and recent scientific research shows that the wood came from the same oak tree. So they may well have been painted in the same studio. By Hilliard?