Miniatures, ancient and modern . ntcolour on ivory, they require immensely morevery small work than they are worth, and more-over they do not look so well when done. Iexpect that in the main Halls method is reallythe best—all flesh painted with transparentcolour on ivory, and all the rest of the picturewith opaque colour, using glair of egg, oldand thin, as a medium. If the egg smells toobadly a good substitute can be made by boil-ing cuttings of vellum and straining the fineglue which will result. After this digression concerning the minia-ture art as practised by ancient artists, and afull a
Miniatures, ancient and modern . ntcolour on ivory, they require immensely morevery small work than they are worth, and more-over they do not look so well when done. Iexpect that in the main Halls method is reallythe best—all flesh painted with transparentcolour on ivory, and all the rest of the picturewith opaque colour, using glair of egg, oldand thin, as a medium. If the egg smells toobadly a good substitute can be made by boil-ing cuttings of vellum and straining the fineglue which will result. After this digression concerning the minia-ture art as practised by ancient artists, and afull appreciation of the fact that miniatures ofseveral sorts were actually made and liked inlong distant times, we can confidently turn tothose periods which are more directly withinour sphere of observation and knowledge. I imagine that altogether the most interest-ing branch of miniature study for us in Eng-land is that of portraiture as it has beenpractised here. Abroad there have been several PUBLIC LIfiRARY ASr©«. AMD. HENKY VIIIBv Holbein PORTRAITURE 39 miniature painters of distinction — Mabuse»Clouet-Janet, Isabey, and several others—con-cerning whose work I intend to say somethingin a future chapter; but I think our maininterest lies in the great English school ofminiature portraiture which has flourished^with short intervals, ever since the time ofHenry VIII until the present day. It will be seen that there have been threefairly distinctive periods of miniature art inEngland. Each of these styles, or schools ofstyle, has taken its inspiration from one ofthe great artists whose genius has been sogreat that they belong to the whole w^orld ofart rather than to any one nation. The first period is dominated by the genius ofHans Holbein the younger; it belongs to the six-teenth century, and may be distinctively classedas the Tudor period, and the finest examplesof it include miniature portraits of our Tudorsovereigns and their court. The miniatures ofthis period
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