COLLECTION NAME:
Undergraduate Thesis Collection
Record
Title:
Miniature Icons: Hilliard's Portrait Miniatures as Tools of Private Devotion
Creator:
Hallman, Emily Kay
Subject:
Thesis (B.F.A.) -- Art History
Subject:
Savannah College of Art and Design -- Department of Art History
Rights:
Copyright is retained by the authors or artists of items in this collection, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
Abstract:
"The portrait miniatures of the Tudor and Elizabethan periods – like prayerbooks, reliquaries, prayer beads, and miniature altars – functioned as personal, private devotional tools for an audience that was newly Protestant. Further, they embodied humanist philosophies that centered around the agency of humankind, illuminating the shift from the spiritual to the secular. To date, scholars have demonstrated that portrait miniatures developed out of the medieval tradition of manuscript illumination, which was mostly used in the 15th and 16th centuries to decorate prayer books. However, most have eschewed the relationship of these hand-held portraits to other tools of private devotion, such as reliquaries, boxwood prayer beads, and miniature altars. The traditions and visual characteristics associated with Catholic devotional tools were assimilated into portrait miniatures, both being inherently private and reflective. As an art form that was newly established at the height of the Renaissance as the Reformation gained momentum, portrait miniatures occupy the overlap between Catholic ritual and humanistic philosophy that culminated in examples by Nicholas Hilliard (ca. 1547–1619). Using tactics to manifest an image that was psychologically present in the eyes and imagination of the viewer, Hilliard painted Queen Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen, to appear in her miniatures as an icon: the new Virgin Mary for a Protestant and humanist audience." -- Abstract
Publisher:
Savannah, Georgia: Savannah College of Art and Design
Date:
2021-05
Format:
1 online resource: 1 PDF (Thesis, 101 pages, color illustrations)