Masterpieces in Little: Portrait Miniatures from the Collection of
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
May 3-July 13, 1997

They bear witness to the lives and loves of English kings and queens, and hint also of scandal. They trace the look of British royalty and nobility for 300 years, and record their varied interests – from poetry and music to empire-building.

Yet most would fit easily into the palm of your hand.

There are 75 miniature portraits in Masterpieces in Little: Portrait Miniatures from the Collection of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on view at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts through Sunday, July 13. Many of them have never before been shown to the public.

Some are so small that they were painted with a brush made of only a few squirrel hairs, yet they are so detailed that it is possible to see the sparkle in every jewel. They have been called "some of the great masterpieces of northern renaissance art."

The names of the sitters are a litany of British history since the 16th century. Two of the tiny portraits depict Henry VIII, others show two of his six wives – Jane Seymour, who died giving birth to Henry's only son, and Catherine Howard, who was beheaded for infidelity. Henry's daughter Elizabeth I is shown in two miniatures. She was the Virgin Queen for whom the Commonwealth of Virginia was named. (A portrait of Elizabeth's favorite courtier, Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, is also on display.)

There is a portrait of the king for whom the New World's first permanent English settlement, Jamestown, was named: King James I. And there are also tiny portraits of James I's wife, Anne of Denmark, and his son, Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales. Young Henry died of typhus before he could succeed his to the throne, but Virginians named one of their largest counties, Henrico, in his memory.

Charles I, Queen Anne and George II are also portrayed in miniature, as is George III, if not for whom Americans might well still curtsy to the miniatures' current owner.

A tiny likeness of George IV is accompanied by a medallion showing his first wife, Maria Fitzherbert. George married Maria before he became king, but she was a Catholic and a commoner. So when he succeeded to the throne, he was forced to marry a Protestant princess, Caroline of Brunswick. But when George IV died, it was a miniature portrait of Mrs. Fitzherbert that was found close to his heart.

And to be true to the history of English rule, a sketch of Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of England from 1649 to 1660, is also in the show.

Testifying to the wide-ranging interests of British royalty and nobility are miniature portraits of poet John Donne, composer George Frideric Handel, and Lord Nelson, the naval hero of the Battle of Trafalgar.

The earliest of the tiny pictures date from the beginnings of miniature portraiture, at the hands of artist Lucas Hornebolte (who died in 1544), to its final flowering in the Victorian era. In addition to Hornebolte, famous miniature portraitists represented include Hans Holbein the Younger, Nicholas Hilliard, Isaac Oliver, Samuel Cooper, C.F. Zincke, Jeremiah Meyer, Richard Cosway and William Charles Ross.

Queen Elizabeth's nearly 3,000 miniature portraits make up the largest such collection in the world and are unparalleled in scope. They document the appearance and tastes of Tudor, Stuart and Georgian monarchs, according to Malcolm Cormack, the Virginia Museum's Paul Mellon curator and coordinator of the exhibition's Richmond showing.

Masterpieces in Little: Portrait Miniatures from the Collection of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II represents the first time that the collection has traveled to the United States. The tour was planned to coincide with the refurbishment of the fire-damaged areas of Windsor Castle, where the miniatures are normally housed. The exhibition will remain on view in Richmond, its third and last stop in the United States, through July 13.

The art of portrait miniatures, which began in the 1500s, flourished through the reigns of Elizabeth I, James I and Charles I, when the cultural elite were proud to have their likenesses "counterfeited" by means of these bejeweled treasures. They would hang them around their necks, pin them to their clothing or keep them close in "lidded lockets," according to Cormack. "Shown together, these pictorial gems provide a stunningly beautiful history of the British royal family and their circle," he says.

The curator of the exhibition was Christopher Lloyd, Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures. Lent by Queen Elizabeth II, the exhibition was organized by the Royal Collection Trust and is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and Humanities. Funding for the exhibition's Virginia presentation was provided by The Lettie Pate Whitehead Evans Fund, The Council of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and Ferguson Enterprises.

Itinerary
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY, (Nov. 5, 1996-Jan 5, 1997); Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Galleries, San Marino (CA) (Feb. 1-April 13, 1997)