Studio: international art (71.1917)

The Beauchamp Miniatures at the Victoria and Albert Museum

THE BEAUCHAMP MINIATURES AT
THE VICTORIA AND ALBERT MU-
SEUM. BY T. MARTIN WOOD

THE history of miniature painting in
England resolves itself into three
periods. With each of these the art
appears to be reborn. In an article
in The Studio for January on the Buccleuch
collection, I compared results attained in
different mediums, and in this article I shall
make further comparisons of the same kind,
but I recognize that at this stage it would be
more useful to make all my comparisons within
the limits of one of the divisions, between the
miniatures of artists employing the same medium,
and not between results achieved by methods
that are not in a true sense related.

There were two innovations in miniature
painting which changed in succession its char-
acter. There was first the adoption of ivory as
the surface for receiving paint, following the
introduction of transparent colour, and then
there was the revolution brought about by the
use of enamel. In each case new ideals emerged
from the character of the medium, and the new
style was not the development of the old but
the discovery of a new art. We have thus in
miniatures three arts, each pursuing an ideal

"an elizabethan maundy." attributed to
nicholas hilliard

LXXI. No. 293.—August 191 y

of beauty peculiar to itself. There is the art
of the opaque decorative miniature ; the art of
the translucent colour miniature on ivory ; and
the art of enamel miniature.

Opportunities for a close study of these
separately and in detail have always been
limited, for the collections which would afford
them have never for any long period at a time
been publicly on view. A compensating feature
in war-time conditions in London, that generally
seem so unfavourable to the cause of education,
has been the depositing of the Buccleuch and
Beauchamp Miniatures with the South Kensing-
ton authorities, with the permission to put them
on view. For want of the opportunities for

lady arabella stuart (1575-1615)
by isaac oliver

close study of the development of the miniature,
books on the subject have too often followed
the art in tales of the artists, rather than as
an analysis of the results by which individual
performance should be viewed.

Many people are interested in the lives of the
miniaturists because of the circles in which they
moved, and extensive inquiry is made of their
art for the glimpses it affords of the great
personages who once occupied the world-stage.
That is not the point of view from which I shall
regard the Beauchamp collection, but following
the critical line adopted in the Buccleuch article
I shall attempt a closer examination of individual
work.

One of the most perfect miniatures in the

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