Ever wondered about the big names in the tiny world of European miniature paintings? This post is a quick spotlight on three famous artists who painted little portraits of big important people. From the royal courts of Renaissance France with François Clouet to the elaborate details in Nicholas Hilliard’s works for Queen Elizabeth I, and then to the realistic portrayals by Samuel Cooper, these artists brought miniature painting to the big time.
François Clouet (c. 1510 – 1572): He was active during the French Renaissance. His career spanned the middle to late 16th century. Clouet was the go-to guy for royal portraits in the Renaissance, following in his father Jean Clouet’s tiny footsteps.
Hilliard Nicolas (1547-vers 1619). Chantilly, musée Condé.
Nicholas Hilliard (1547 – 1619): His work primarily falls into the late 16th century and the early 17th century, within the Elizabethan and early Jacobean era in England. Hilliard was Queen Elizabeth I’s favorite during the 1500s. The guy in the midst of flames was certainly someone’s favorite. Once you’ve glanced at these, please return to look again. They are mighty little paintings.
Samuel Cooper (1609 – 1672): Cooper’s period of activity was in the 17th century, during the Commonwealth and Restoration periods in England. He painted realistic miniatures of famous kings and lords and ladies back in the mid-1600s. Perhaps the paintings were life-size, and the people were just very small.
metmuseumSir Thomas Smith 1667 Samuel Cooper 1609-1672
And there you have it — a quick spotlight on three giants of miniature painting. Thanks for reading. More soon!
My last V. Note proclaimed itself “the first of four posts highlighting black artists with professional careers in both painting and printmaking.” I had done an internet search for black artists, and found a Wiki page with a fantastic list of artists I could research. To narrow down the list, I looked for all the artists …
Read Claes Oldenburg’s Manifesto below. At the top of your paper write “I am for…” Choose something within his list, and draw/paint/collage/photograph it. Having trouble choosing something? Close your eyes, loudly say “I am for the art!” and point. Take a picture of your drawing and post it to our Facebook page. Tag: #salchallenge The January Creative Challenge: 15 …
In these drawings Henry Moore describes the aged body. He made a series of drawings of his own hands when he was eighty-one and suffering from ill-health, and he did more of Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin’s gnarled joints. ‘Hands can convey so much’ he said, ‘they can beg or refuse, take or give, be open or clenched, show content …
Born on this day: September 6, 1947, Luciano de Liberato is an Italian colorist who paints constructed “still lifes” of colored paper. The paintings appear at first to be flat but upon further inspection are actually carefully crafted to imitate exactly the depth of layered paper, woven, and lifted up a bit at the edges. The …
European Miniature Paintings 1500 – 1770
Ever wondered about the big names in the tiny world of European miniature paintings? This post is a quick spotlight on three famous artists who painted little portraits of big important people. From the royal courts of Renaissance France with François Clouet to the elaborate details in Nicholas Hilliard’s works for Queen Elizabeth I, and then to the realistic portrayals by Samuel Cooper, these artists brought miniature painting to the big time.
François Clouet (c. 1510 – 1572): He was active during the French Renaissance. His career spanned the middle to late 16th century. Clouet was the go-to guy for royal portraits in the Renaissance, following in his father Jean Clouet’s tiny footsteps.
Nicholas Hilliard (1547 – 1619): His work primarily falls into the late 16th century and the early 17th century, within the Elizabethan and early Jacobean era in England. Hilliard was Queen Elizabeth I’s favorite during the 1500s. The guy in the midst of flames was certainly someone’s favorite. Once you’ve glanced at these, please return to look again. They are mighty little paintings.
Samuel Cooper (1609 – 1672): Cooper’s period of activity was in the 17th century, during the Commonwealth and Restoration periods in England. He painted realistic miniatures of famous kings and lords and ladies back in the mid-1600s. Perhaps the paintings were life-size, and the people were just very small.
And there you have it — a quick spotlight on three giants of miniature painting. Thanks for reading. More soon!
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