International studio . WILLIAM CAVENUISIL MKSTU U K E OF N E \V C A S T L EU5y^ 1676. HV SAMUELCOOPER, AFTER \ AN DVCK The B lie clench Miiiiatuyes conception of the art as summed up in the workof the later half of the eighteenth century—in theminiatures of Cosway, Engleheart and is referred to, indeed, as the golden age ofMiniature, but there are many who would placethat age at a previous time : that of Cooper, forinstance. The present writer sees Miniature paint-ing at its height with Milliard and Oliver, whenit has a life—if a fantastic one—and charm ofits own ; when it is not m
International studio . WILLIAM CAVENUISIL MKSTU U K E OF N E \V C A S T L EU5y^ 1676. HV SAMUELCOOPER, AFTER \ AN DVCK The B lie clench Miiiiatuyes conception of the art as summed up in the workof the later half of the eighteenth century—in theminiatures of Cosway, Engleheart and is referred to, indeed, as the golden age ofMiniature, but there are many who would placethat age at a previous time : that of Cooper, forinstance. The present writer sees Miniature paint-ing at its height with Milliard and Oliver, whenit has a life—if a fantastic one—and charm ofits own ; when it is not merely a portrait or apicture dwindled small, but a picture which couldnot be enlarged because the whole beaut)- of its. KING JAMKS II, WHEN DUKE OK YORK (1633-I7O1)BY SAMUEL COOPBR composition resides with its jeweller-like love ofsmall spaces; thus achieving concentration, suchas that of the sonnet or of the epigram, which isnot in any sense compression. But for the elementof likeness-taking, entering in as an end—as anart in itself—we could not possibly compare thecharm of the Miniature of any other time withthat of the Hilliard period. I use the word charmin its true sense—as all words should be used inspeaking of art—meaning that enchantment, thatsorcery, by which a work of art takes possession ofimagination and fancy for the moment to theexclusion of everything else in the world. Hilliard called Holbein his master. Holbeinsinfluence enabled Hilliard to improve his repre-sentation of the face. It sometimes is the instinctof a decorator, which Hilliard supremely was, to170 keep out intensity of in the face; toadopt towards the human countenance an attitudethat almost relegates it
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