The art of painting miniatures has its origins with the illuminators of chivalric times, whose tiny depictions of scenes coming from the Holy bible were incorporated in to manuscripts. This artistic creation form developed and enhanced in 16th and seventeenth century in European countries while a need increased for small mementos of spouses and children or deceased family members that could be transported when travelling a lot as we take a photogaph of our partner or family members in our wallets today. Portrait miniatures played an important role in the individual relationships of the upper middle-class and the aristocracy of the moment; they were expressions of closeness or love. In that regard they were similar to grieving brooches containing plaited locks of the hair of the ?dearly departed? that as well became common in Victorian times.
Previous to the 18th century, portrait miniatures were painted in an assortment of media: oil, watercolour or sometimes enamel ? but water-colour nonetheless predominated. They were being as well painted variously on vellum, chicken-skin or card board, and even on copper. During the eighteenth century, however, water-color on ivory became the normal method, and this continued until the miniature was gradually replaced by daguerreotypes and photography about the end of the 19th century. The zenith of the popularity of miniature portraits, equally in European countries and North America has been in mid-Victorian periods.
Miniatures have beenusually small and oval-shaped or spherical. A few were as tiny as 40 mm by 30 mm. They were often encased in a locket or a covered ?portrait box?. In fact, the housing for the portraits was at times ornamented with components of destruction or romance such as carved initials or flowers or braided locks of hair. When employed for mourning, suitable symbolism was sometimes integrated on the reverse of the locket or frame, like mourners at a tomb. Since the type moved into Victorian periods many miniatures grew bigger (up to 150 mm by 200mm) and were painted in square or rectangular form, to be shown on walls or in cabinets. The innovative use of ivory as a ?material? was introduced by the Italian painter Rosalba Carriera in about 1700 because it supplied a luminous surface for translucent pigments like water-color. The ivory was cut from the elephant?s tusk in thin sheets lengthways, sometimes so thin as to be nearly transparent. Ivory is, nevertheless, hard to paint on with water-color, staying greasy and non-absorbent. Miniaturists therefore roughened the surface with fine sandpaper or powdered pumice stone. They as well washed-out it in natural light to make it more white. An additional technique was to degrease it with vinegar and ail, or by pressing it with a warm iron between sheets of paper. A few painters employed a brush with a single hair, and added in gum arabic to the fresh paint to make it stickier. Generally-speaking Victorian miniature portraits encompassed a brighter palette of colour, monochromic backgrounds and brushwork that exploited the semitransparency of the ivory where it was painted.
From Jaegy-Theoleyre : modelisme portrait
Source: http://articlegoes.com/miniature-portraits-in-victorian-period.html
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