miniature painting

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Painting on a very small scale, notably early manuscript illumination, and later miniature portraits, sometimes set in jewelled cases, and Islamic paintings. Hans Holbein the Younger introduced miniature portrait painting into England, the form reaching its height in the works of Hilliard in the 16th century, though continuing well into the 19th century. There was also a very strong tradition of miniature portrait painting in France. Miniatures by Islamic artists flourished in India and Persia, their subjects often bird and flowers, or scenes from history and legend, rather than portraits (see Islamic art).

English miniatures
Hans Holbein painted portrait miniatures while in England (1531–43), using gouache on playing cards. The form was later perfected by such artists as Nicholas Hilliard, who set the portraits, which were worn as jewellery, in exquisite frames of precious metal. Later English miniaturists include Hilliard's pupil Isaac Oliver and Isaac's son, Peter Oliver; Samuel Cooper, who was called a ‘van Dyck in little’; and Richard Cosway, whose miniatures for snuffbox lids were famous.

French miniatures
The earliest French miniaturists were Jean and François Clouet, and a number of specialists practised the art in France in the 17th and 18th centuries, while such well-known painters as Largillierre, Boucher, and Prud'hon produced some miniatures. Petitot (1607–1691) is noted for miniatures executed in enamel for Louis XIV.

Leading French miniaturists of the late 18th century were Jean Baptiste Jacques Augustin (1759–1832) and Jean Baptiste Isabey (1757–1855), a favourite of the Napoleonic court. Friedrich Fuger (1751–1818), a German artist who worked for the Austrian court, is sometimes known as ‘the Cosway of Vienna’.

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