Inspired by a miniature portrait by Nicholas Hilliard of Queen Elizabeth I playing the lute.

 

The incredible miniature was painted by Hilliard soon after his return from France, where he had been in the service of Duke of Anjou, Elizabeth’s then suitor. It is well known that Elizabeth did in fact play the lute, and the miniature is one of very few English pictures of a lute at a time when it was so central to musical life.