Miniature art includes paintings, engravings and sculptures that are very small; it has a long history that dates back to prehistory. The

portrait miniature A portrait miniature is a miniature portrait painting, usually executed in gouache, watercolor, or enamel. Portrait miniatures developed out of the techniques of the miniatures in illuminated manuscripts, and were popular among 16th-century eli ...

is the most common form in recent centuries, and from ancient times,

engraved gem An engraved gem, frequently referred to as an intaglio, is a small and usually semi-precious gemstone that has been carved, in the Western tradition normally with images or inscriptions only on one face. The engraving of gemstones was a major lu ...

s, often used as

impression seal The impression seal is a common seal that leaves an impression, typically in clay and less often in sealing wax. In antiquity they were common, largely because they served to authenticate legal documents, such as tax receipts, contracts, wills an ...

s, and

cylinder seal A cylinder seal is a small round cylinder, typically about one inch (2 to 3 cm) in length, engraved with written characters or figurative scenes or both, used in ancient times to roll an impression onto a two-dimensional surface, generally ...

s in various materials were very important. For example most surviving examples of figurative art from the

Indus Valley civilization The Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC), also known as the Indus Civilisation was a Bronze Age civilisation in the northwestern regions of South Asia, lasting from 3300 BCE to 1300 BCE, and in its mature form 2600 BCE to 1900&n ...

and in

Minoan art Minoan art is the art produced by the Bronze Age Aegean Minoan civilization from about 3000 to 1100 BC, though the most extensive and finest survivals come from approximately 2300 to 1400 BC. It forms part of the wider grouping of Aegean art, ...

are very small seals. Gothic boxwood miniatures are very small carvings in wood, used for

rosary The Rosary (; la, , in the sense of "crown of roses" or "garland of roses"), also known as the Dominican Rosary, or simply the Rosary, refers to a set of prayers used primarily in the Catholic Church, and to the physical string of knots or b ...

beads and the like. Western paintings in

illuminated manuscript An illuminated manuscript is a formally prepared document where the text is often supplemented with flourishes such as borders and miniature illustrations. Often used in the Roman Catholic Church for prayers, liturgical services and psalms, the ...

s are known as miniatures, even if not very small - this sense of the word in fact has a different derivation, from a Latin word for a reddish

pigment A pigment is a colored material that is completely or nearly insoluble in water. In contrast, dyes are typically soluble, at least at some stage in their use. Generally dyes are often organic compounds whereas pigments are often inorganic compo ...

. Miniature art has been made for over 2500 years and is prized by collectors. Museums around the world have collections of miniature paintings, drawings, original prints and etchings, and sculpture. Miniature art societies, such as the World Federation of Miniaturists (WFM) and Royal Miniature Society, provide applicable of the maximum size covered by the term. An often-used definition is that a piece of miniature art can be held in the palm of the hand, or that it covers less than 25 square inches or 100 cm². Some exhibits require the subjects to be depicted in 1/6 actual size, and in all paintings the spirit of miniaturisation should be maintained.

Collecting

Miniature Art Societies hold annual shows around the world. The Miniature Painters, Sculptors & Gravers Society of Washington, DC, is the oldest miniature art society in the USA. The Miniature Art Society of Florida is possibly one of the largest miniature art shows in the USA. Galleries such as Seaside Art Gallery, The Snowgoose Gallery, and the Ciders Painters of America also hold annual exhibitions where visitors are invited to view the paintings and sculptures under magnifying lenses.

Artists of the miniature art genre

Artists known for working in miniature include: * Gopal prasad sharma (India) *

Aman Singh Gulati Aman Singh Gulati (born 11 October 2000) is an Indian visual artist. He paints artworks on multiple miniature objects including almonds, matchsticks etc. He achieved multiple national and international awards including multiple world records, ...

(India) * Margaret Hicks (US) *

Mahmoud Farshchian Mahmoud Farshchian ( fa, محمود فرشچیان, translit=Mahmud Faršciyân; born 24 January 1930) is an Iranian painter and educator. He was a master of Persian miniature painting. His paintings have been hosted by several museums and exhibi ...

(Iran) *

Jonty Hurwitz Jonty Hurwitz (born 2 September 1969 in Johannesburg) is a British South African artist, engineer and entrepreneur. Hurwitz creates scientifically inspired artworks and anamorphic sculptures. He is recognised for the smallest human form ever ...

(UK, South Africa) * Debra Keirce (US) * Karen Latham (US) * Willard M. Mitchell (Canada) * Henry Saxon (UK) * Suvigya Sharma (India) * Magda Szabo (Canada) *

Narcissa Niblack Thorne Narcissa Niblack Thorne (May 2, 1882 – June 25, 1966) was an American artist known for her extremely detailed miniature rooms. Her works depict historical interiors from Europe, Asia and North America from the late 13th to the early 20th ce ...

(US) * Bashir Ahmed (Pakistan) *

Joris Hoefnagel Joris Hoefnagel or Georg Hoefnagel (1542, in Antwerp – 24 July 1601, in Vienna) was a Flemish painter, printmaker, miniaturist, draftsman and merchant. He is noted for his illustrations of natural history subjects, topographical views, ...

(the Netherlands) * Ludwik Marteau (Poland) *

Fernando García del Molino Fernando García del Molino (23 March 1813, Santiago - 1899, Buenos Aires) was a Chilean-born Argentine portrait painter, miniaturist and lithographer. Many of his portraits were done from photographs or daguerrotypes. Biography He was born t ...

(Argentina) * Miss Archibald Ramsay Douglas (UK) * Penelope Cleyn (UK) *

Nihâl Chand Nihâl Chand (1710–1782) was an Indian painter and poet who produced some of the best known examples of Rajput painting. He was the chief painter at the court of Kishangarh during the time of the ruler Savant Singh (also known as Nagari Das). ...

(India) *

Joan Carlile Joan Carlile or Carlell or Carliell (c. 1606–1679), was an English portrait painter. She was one of the first British women known to practise painting professionally. Before Carlile, known professional female painters working in Britain were ...

(UK) * Anna Maria Carew (UK) * Moshe Bromberg (Poland) *

Mir Musavvir Mir Musavvir (fl. 1510–48, died 1555) was a Persian painter at the Safavid court at Tabriz and later the Mughal court at Kabul. During his time at the royal Safavid workshop, he contributed to the ''Shahnameh'' of Shah Tahmasp. He was t ...

(

Safavid Safavid Iran or Safavid Persia (), also referred to as the Safavid Empire, '. was one of the greatest Iranian empires after the 7th-century Muslim conquest of Persia, which was ruled from 1501 to 1736 by the Safavid dynasty. It is often conside ...

Era) *

Christian Backer-Owe Christian Lauritz Backer-Owe (20 November 1924 – 2 February 2015) was a Norwegian artist and printmaker. He was born in Trondheim, and made his exhibition debut at Trondheim Kunstforening in 1944 before attending the Norwegian National Ac ...

(Norway) *

Dust Muhammad Dust Muhammad (or Doust Muhammad) was a Persian painter of miniatures, calligrapher, and art historian, active from about 1510 to 1564. Later in life he worked in India. Early career Dust Muhammad was born in Herat in the late 15th century, alth ...

(

Era) *

Peter Paillou Peter Paillou (c.1720 – c.1790) was a British artist best known for his paintings of birds, many of which were used as book illustrations. Life and career Little is known of his early life but it is believed that he came to Britain from Fr ...

(UK) * Pyotr Sokolov (Russia) * Gunasekaran Sundarraj (India) *

Mohamed Temam Mohamed Temam or Mohamed Temmam (23 February 1915 Algiers – 15 July 1988 Algiers) was Algerian miniaturist painter and illuminator. His miniature painting of the Kaaba in Mecca was featured on a commemorative stamp issued by Algeria in 1978. ...

(Algeria) * Élisabeth Terroux (Switzerland) *

Henry Tanworth Wells Henry Tanworth Wells (14 December 1828 – 16 January 1903) was an English miniature and portrait painter. He was a member of the Pre-Raphaelite circle though he painted in the academic style. His most popular painting was ''Victoria Regi ...

(UK) * Abdullah Buhari (Turkey) * Nakkaş Sinan Bey (Turkey) * Abdulcelil Levni (Turkey) *

Nakkaş Osman Nakkaş Osman (sometimes called Osman the Miniaturist) was the chief Ottoman miniature, miniaturist for the Ottoman Empire during the later half of the sixteenth century. The dates of his birth and death are poorly known, but most of his works ar ...

(Turkey) *

Matrakçı Nasuh Nasuh bin Karagöz bin Abdullah el-Visokavi el-Bosnavî, commonly known as Matrakçı Nasuh (; ) for his competence in the combat sport of '' Matrak'' which was invented by himself, (also known as ''Nasuh el-Silâhî'', ''Nasuh the Swordsman'', ...

(Turkey) *

Mir Sayyid Ali Mir Sayyid Ali (Tabriz, 1510 – 1572) was a Persian miniature painter who was a leading artist of Persian miniatures before working under the Mughal dynasty in India, where he became one of the artists responsible for developing the style of Mugh ...

(Afghanistan) *

Nusret Çolpan Nusret Çolpan (October 1, 1952 – May 31, 2008) was a Turkish people, Turkish painter, architect and miniaturist, renowned for his paintings in Ottoman miniature style depicting cities around the world, particularly Istanbul. He painted over ...

(Turkey) *

Mallikarjuna Reddy Mallikarjuna Reddy (born 24 August 1981) is a miniature sculptor, Guinness World Record Holder, and the creator of the world's smallest monolithic sculptures. He constructed 18 sculptures on a single rice grain, without using magnification lens ...

(India) * Nikolai Aldunin (Russia) *

Anatoly Konenko Anatoly Ivanovich Konenko (russian: Анато́лий Ива́нович Коне́нко; born 23 February 1954) is a microminiature painter and sculptor from the Russian city of Omsk. In 1996 he was entered into the Guinness Book of World R ...

(Russia) *

Hagop Sandaldjian Hagop Sandaldjian (1931–1990Joshua Tompkins"Honey I Shrunk the Art" '' Los Angeles Magazine'', May 1997, p.24.) was an Egyptian-born Armenian American musician and microminiature sculptor, best known for his tiny art pieces, currently displayed ...

(Egypt) * Rina Vellichor (Russia) *

Graham Short Graham Short, (born 4 July 1946) is a micro-artist, living and working in Birmingham, England. In 2012 his nine-month project 'Cutting Edge' showing the words "Nothing is Impossible" engraved along the sharp edge of a Wilkinson Sword razor bla ...

(UK) *

Willard Wigan Willard Wigan, (born June 1957) is a British sculptor from Ashmore Park Estate, Wednesfield, England, the son of Jamaican immigrants, who makes micro miniature sculptures. His sculptures are typically placed in the eye of a needle or on the head ...

(UK) *

Reza Abbasi Reza Abbasi, Riza yi-Abbasi or Reza-e Abbasi, رضا عباسی in Persian, usually Reza Abbasi also Aqa Reza (see below) or Āqā Riżā Kāshānī ( – 1635) was the leading Persian miniaturist of the Isfahan School during the later Safavid ...

(Iran) * Members of the

Royal Society of Miniature Painters, Sculptors and Gravers The Royal Society of Miniature Painters, Sculptors and Gravers, more commonly known as the Royal Miniature Society (RMS), is an art society founded in 1895 dedicated to upholding and continuing the tradition of miniature painting and sculpture, ...

Collecting

Artists of the miniature art genre

See also

References

Further reading