Semiramis (from the Amberley Castle 'Heroines of Antiquity') (Amberley Queens)

Semiramis, legendary queen of Assyria and Babylon, was among the most celebrated of classical heroines and a fixture in Renaissance compilations of famous women. According to tradition she founded Babylon, conducted military campaigns, and built great engineering works; Dante placed her among the souls in his Inferno for her legendary licentiousness, but humanist writers rehabilitated her as an exemplar of female governance. At Amberley Castle, she would have been among the most immediately recognisable figures in the series, her reputation as a builder-queen an apt parallel for a bishop patron himself engaged in architectural improvement of the castle.

Oil on panel. Semiramis's attributes in the visual tradition included a crown, a builder's tools or a depiction of Babylon, or a military emblem. Barnard's version at the Novium Museum follows the series' half-length format while incorporating whatever identifying elements the patron's scholarly advisers specified.