DOI issue:
Nr. 240 (February, 1917)
DOI article:Wood, T. Martin: The Buccleuch miniatures at the Victoria and Albert Museum
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43463#0292
The Buccletich Miniatures
hunter too, it is said—in the description of his
marriage. I )ixon succeeded to Cooper as King’s
Limner.
’The sudden change in the character of Miniature
art which took place in the early part of the seven-
teenth century, as we see when we compare the
flat decorative style of Hilliard and Isaac Oliver
with that of Cooper, whose life their own just
overlapped, was more than anything else due to
the influence of Van Dyck in England. Van
Dyck’s pictures were copied by the Miniaturists
of the seventeenth century with something of the
reverence with which Nature would be copied.
Charles I., than whom surely there has never been
OLIVER CROMWELL (1599-1658)
BY SAMUEL COOPER
a greater lover of pictures, desired to carry about
on his person copies of the works of great Italian
pictures in his collection. This demand perfected
the art of copying. Sometimes copies, as in the
picture of the Duke of Newcastle by Samuel
Cooper after Vandyck, and in that of the Duchess
of Cleveland by William Faithorne, our two full-
page illustrations, were on the scale of nine inches
or a foot, very highly wrought, and gaining some-
thing over the originals by translucent quality of
colour from the polish of the surface on which
they were worked. The change from vellum to
ivory was another cause in the change of the
character of miniatures. And eventually ivory was
to give place to enamel, but except in the case of
Petitot this last modification did not assist the
168
beauty of Miniature. The miniatures of Boit and
Zincke who employed enamel have often a metallic,
almost aniline unpleasantness of colour aspect that
grades them far below the works of the artists we
have been considering.
GEORGE MONCK, DUKE OF ALBEMARLE, K.G. (1608-1670)
BY SAMUEL COOPER
One of the benefits that we derive from the
exhibition of a collection of early miniatures of
the importance of the Buccleuch collection is that
it enables the public to see the art in its true
perspective. A great deal of the vulgarity of
the modern miniature seems to be based on a
SAMUEL BUTLER (l6l2-l68o)
ATTRIBUTED TO SAMUEL COOPER
hunter too, it is said—in the description of his
marriage. I )ixon succeeded to Cooper as King’s
Limner.
’The sudden change in the character of Miniature
art which took place in the early part of the seven-
teenth century, as we see when we compare the
flat decorative style of Hilliard and Isaac Oliver
with that of Cooper, whose life their own just
overlapped, was more than anything else due to
the influence of Van Dyck in England. Van
Dyck’s pictures were copied by the Miniaturists
of the seventeenth century with something of the
reverence with which Nature would be copied.
Charles I., than whom surely there has never been
OLIVER CROMWELL (1599-1658)
BY SAMUEL COOPER
a greater lover of pictures, desired to carry about
on his person copies of the works of great Italian
pictures in his collection. This demand perfected
the art of copying. Sometimes copies, as in the
picture of the Duke of Newcastle by Samuel
Cooper after Vandyck, and in that of the Duchess
of Cleveland by William Faithorne, our two full-
page illustrations, were on the scale of nine inches
or a foot, very highly wrought, and gaining some-
thing over the originals by translucent quality of
colour from the polish of the surface on which
they were worked. The change from vellum to
ivory was another cause in the change of the
character of miniatures. And eventually ivory was
to give place to enamel, but except in the case of
Petitot this last modification did not assist the
168
beauty of Miniature. The miniatures of Boit and
Zincke who employed enamel have often a metallic,
almost aniline unpleasantness of colour aspect that
grades them far below the works of the artists we
have been considering.
GEORGE MONCK, DUKE OF ALBEMARLE, K.G. (1608-1670)
BY SAMUEL COOPER
One of the benefits that we derive from the
exhibition of a collection of early miniatures of
the importance of the Buccleuch collection is that
it enables the public to see the art in its true
perspective. A great deal of the vulgarity of
the modern miniature seems to be based on a
SAMUEL BUTLER (l6l2-l68o)
ATTRIBUTED TO SAMUEL COOPER