PORTRAIT MINIATURE: EVOLUTION OF THE ART FORM

Abstract

The aim of the article is to survey the development of the portrait miniature painting justaposed with the Khanenko Museum collection. Portrait miniature is a unique form of art with its key function of a person representation throughout the beginning of the16th until the 19th century. Portable images embodied a grandiose meaning and served both as a political and an intimate symbol. The first tiny portraits emerged at the courts of England and France and remained the prerogative of monarchs for a long time. The average size of items is 3-8 cm, but there are also ones, which are about 2 cm. However, the term miniature does not derive from the Latin minimum – the smallest, as one might immediately think. The exquisite art evolved from illumination, where artists painted on parchment with watercolors. Thus, the first miniature portraits were on parchment, and only later on copper, ivory and paper using watercolor, gouache, oil and enamel technique. The art breathed in Europe for almost 400 years: during the 16th – 17th century it developed and spread, the 18th century was a peak of its popularity, early 19th century the miniature panting faded with the invention of daguerreotype. The article chronicles evolution of the portrait miniature through its general and selective history lens in connection with the Khanenko Museum artworks. There are 74 items of the 16th–19th centuries, according to inventory data. Thу study offers an overview of portrait painting trends to identify the criteria of artistic and cultural value of the Khanenko Museum portraits. The miniature is considered both as an independent art and as a decorative one, depends on object function. The methodological basis of the article is historiographical analysis of the development of the portrait miniature. The references were systematized and summarized for further comparative analysis with the Khanenko Museum miniatures. Study originality is in a mutual exchange of technical, execution, and function aspects of the miniature painting based on the Khanenko Museum collection.