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

Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons and one of the most famous figures in Greek mythology, appears in the Amberley heroines series alongside Lampedo and other Amazon queens. Hippolyta features in multiple mythological narratives — Heracles's ninth labour required him to obtain her girdle, and Theseus abducted her to Athens — but in the Amberley programme she is presented as a martial exemplar rather than a victim of male heroes. Lambert Barnard's series at the Novium Museum collectively represents one of the most intact surviving English Renaissance heroine programmes, comparable in ambition to Continental equivalents but rendered in the distinctive English provincial style.

Oil on panel. Amazon heroines in the series would have shared martial attributes — the girdle being Hippolyta's specific identifying item — while maintaining the uniform half-length format that allows the viewer to move through the series as a sequence of related comparisons. Barnard's execution is consistent across the group.