From dynastic startup to Tudors Inc.

“Elizabeth I (The Rainbow Portrait), attributed to Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger, (circa 1602), oil on canvas. Reproduced with the permission of the Marquess of Salisbury, Hatfield House. Image © Hatfield House, Hertfordshire, UK/Bridgeman Images.
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Anyone who has any interest in branding, marketing or leadership should get over to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan for its brilliant, beautifully sited “The Tudors: Art and Majesty in Renaissance England” (through Jan. 8), which demonstrates in ravishing detail how a small family with a somewhat shaky pedigree but dynastic ambitions could dominate an illustrious period ”“ and capture our own popular imagination ”“ through the sheer force of storytelling, using the printing press, the internet of the day; fine portraiture; symbolic fashions; commanding estates and gardens; and, well, yes, more than a few beheadings.  

Elizabeth I ”“ the dynasty”™s professional virgin, glorious apotheosis and subject of any number of fictional works, including Starz”™s “Becoming Elizabeth ”“ speaks particularly to those women who are eager to lean in while tightly controlling their brand and ultimately remaining true to themselves.