Elizabethan Treasures: Miniatures by Hilliard and Oliver
Text by Catharine MacLeod.
In the late 16th and early 17th centuries there was one art form in which English artists excelled above all their continental European counterparts: the painting of miniatures. This fascinating book explores the genre with special reference to two of its most accomplished practitioners, Nicholas Hilliard and Isaac Oliver, whose astounding skill brought them international fame and admiration.
In addition to exhibiting the exquisite technique of the artists, portrait miniatures express in a unique way many of the most distinctive and fascinating aspects of court life in this period: ostentatious secrecy, games of courtly love, arcane symbolism, a love of intricacy and decoration. Bedecked in elaborate lace, encrusted in jewellery and sprinkled with flowers, court ladies smile enigmatically at the viewer; their male counterparts rest on grassy banks or lean against trees, sighing over thwarted love, or more modestly express their hopes in Latin epigrams inscribed around their heads.
Often set in richly enamelled and jewelled gold lockets, or beautifully turned ivory or ebony boxes, such miniatures could be concealed or revealed, exchanged or kept, as part of elaborate processes of friendship, love, patronage and diplomacy at the courts of Elizabeth I and James I. This richly illustrated book explores what the portrait miniature reveals about identity, society and visual culture in Elizabethan and Jacobean England.
Featured image is reproduced from 'Elizabethan Treasures: Miniatures by Hilliard and Oliver.'
STATUS: Out of stock
Temporarily out of stock pending additional inventory.
FORMAT: Hbk, 7 x 10.5 in. / 232 pgs / 163 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $49.95 LIST PRICE: CANADA $69.95 ISBN: 9781855147027 PUBLISHER: National Portrait Gallery AVAILABLE: 4/23/2019 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: Out of stock TERRITORY: NA ONLY
Elizabethan Treasures: Miniatures by Hilliard and Oliver
Published by National Portrait Gallery. Text by Catharine MacLeod.
In the late 16th and early 17th centuries there was one art form in which English artists excelled above all their continental European counterparts: the painting of miniatures. This fascinating book explores the genre with special reference to two of its most accomplished practitioners, Nicholas Hilliard and Isaac Oliver, whose astounding skill brought them international fame and admiration.
In addition to exhibiting the exquisite technique of the artists, portrait miniatures express in a unique way many of the most distinctive and fascinating aspects of court life in this period: ostentatious secrecy, games of courtly love, arcane symbolism, a love of intricacy and decoration. Bedecked in elaborate lace, encrusted in jewellery and sprinkled with flowers, court ladies smile enigmatically at the viewer; their male counterparts rest on grassy banks or lean against trees, sighing over thwarted love, or more modestly express their hopes in Latin epigrams inscribed around their heads.
Often set in richly enamelled and jewelled gold lockets, or beautifully turned ivory or ebony boxes, such miniatures could be concealed or revealed, exchanged or kept, as part of elaborate processes of friendship, love, patronage and diplomacy at the courts of Elizabeth I and James I. This richly illustrated book explores what the portrait miniature reveals about identity, society and visual culture in Elizabethan and Jacobean England.
