“I want to be famous as the Queen of England”. Andy Warhol once said it referring to Elizabeth II, considered a character capable of going through seven decades while remaining a globally recognizable pop icon. Protagonist in art, starting from the portraits made by the American artist in 1985 and based on a 1975 photograph of the sovereign widely used in her 1977 Silver Jubilee, but also in cinema, music and fashion with her style and her absolutely original outfits, starting with pastel-colored dresses.
Elisabetta was able to set trends even at a very old age: at 85 with some of her leather handbags in rectangular format, which were sold like hot cakes, and picked up by the big glossy magazines. Traditional and youthful at the same time, Lizzy has represented an unprecedented mix in the imagination with the ability to always keep up with the times, indeed to influence them. The effigy of her passed in the first period from photos, to portraits, as well as, of course, her presence on coins and banknotes, and then also entered the world of cinema by arrogance. From the famous ‘The Queen’ in 2006, in which she is masterfully interpreted by a Helen Mirren able to show the more personal side of the queen, to ‘A Royal Night Out’ in 2015, with the young Elizabeth who lives one night outside the palace, on May 8, 1945, to celebrate the end of the Second World War in Europe, until the success of the series ‘The Crown’, of which the fifth season is awaited.
But the queen was also an actress herself, indeed a Bond Girl: in the 2012 short film that aired during the opening ceremony of the London Olympics. Daniel Craig, perfect 007, went to pick up her Majesty in the Buckingham Palace room to escort her to the stadium. She, in a precious salmon-colored dress (she always wore bright colors, it is also said to be visible to the bodyguards) and a feather hat (one of many), follows him in the company of her inseparable Corgi dogs, who have become an inevitable part of the image associated with the sovereign.
She has also been a permanent presence in art, from the many official portraits made by some of the greatest British painters to a much more underground reality, such as when Banksy imagined her on a Bristol wall with the crown and a red and blue lightning bolt on the face, in the manner of David Bowie in Ziggy Stardust version. However and everywhere present, even in the lyrics of the songs, even those criticized and censored after the release, as happened in 1977 during the Silver Jubilee with ‘God Save the Queen’ by the punk group Sex Pistols. All of this helped create a myth destined to be remembered and celebrated for decades.
Source: Ansa
I’m a journalist who covers health care news. I’ve been working in the news industry for more than 6 years. I have experience writing for print, online, and television. My work has been published by various news websites and magazines.
