EUROPEAN MINIATURE PAINTING Portraits of living persons appear in illuminated manuscripts, especially of the i4th, 15th and i6th centuries and in many notable documents. They reached a high standard in France and the Netherlands. Hans Holbein the younger executed small portraits of very fine and dainty technique, such as are called in the present day miniatures ; and though at this period there were other por trait painters who were responsible for somewhat similar work, such as Shute, Betts, Benninck and Teerlinc in England (see Salting collection, Victoria and Albert museum) Holbein is gen erally regarded as the earliest and greatest representative of the art. The technique of the European miniature painter was closely derived from that of the painter of illuminated manuscripts.
England.—The earliest known English miniature painter, Nicholas Hilliard (c. 1547-1619), in his work shows clear signs of such derivation, his colours are opaque, gold is used to heighten the effect, but the portraits have a flatness and absence of shadows entirely resembling the paintings of the illuminated manuscripts. His son's work is a little bolder than that of the father, and his miniatures somewhat richer in colour. Two painters named Isaac and Peter Oliver, father and son, succeeded Hilliard, Isaac (c. 1567-1617) being stated to have been a pupil of Hilliard, and Peter (1594-1647) his father's pupil. These two men were the earliest to give roundness and form to the faces that they painted, and they were responsible for larger portraits than Hol bein or Hilliard had ever painted in miniature, some of them measuring as much as io in. by 9 inches.
The representations of all these four miniature painters are flat, everything is seen in one light, all in detail, and embroidery, lace or jewellery presented with almost microscopic minuteness.
The two Olivers were followed by two painters named Hoskins, again father and son, the elder, John (d. 1664) was the master of Samuel Cooper the greatest of English miniaturists. In the time of Hoskins, the influence of the old school of illuminators nearly passed away, the portrait was presented much more completely in the round, in distinguished fashion, painted with a full brush in easy rich masses, and the harmony of colours was deeper and grander. Hoskins was the first of the miniature painters to be
able to represent in satisfactory fashion the appearance of flesh.
Hoskins was succeeded by Samuel Cooper, his nephew (1609 1672), who spent much of his early life in France and Holland, and whose work in miniature has been characterized as "life-size in little." His under-painting is often in sepia, but where flesh was concerned in vivid green with a transparent red lake over it. He painted faces supremely well, although erring a little on the ruddy side, and Walpole says of him that, "if a glass could expand Cooper's pictures to the size of Vandyck's, they would appear to have been painted for that proportion." Up to this time, miniature portraits had been painted mainly upon the backs of playing cards, very occasionally upon thin skin, usually chicken-skin, stretched across such card, but Cooper ex perimented twice at least upon mutton bone. The use of ivory did not come in until long after his time. His portraits mark the supreme point in English miniature portrait painting.
He had a brother Alexander (d. 166o), whose works resemble those of Samuel Cooper, but are not as strong or as magnificent.
There were many other painters of his period; among them were David des Granges (1611-1675), whose work can be studied at Ham House and Windsor Castle, Richard Gibson (1615-169o), Mrs. Rosse, his daughter, who cleverly imitated the work of Samuel Cooper, and other painters, such as Flatman, who was also a poet, Nicholas Dixon, Sir B. Gerbier and Charles and Mary Beale. All these made use of opaque colours.
Just before 1768, there was a fashion for extremely small miniatures, still, however, painted upon cardboard or occasionally upon vellum, and the work of such artists as Gervase Spencer (d. 1763), Hone and Scouler should be noted.