The Sixteenth and Seventeenth-century Miniatures in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen

Book excerpt: The Royal Collection contains a comprehensive group of miniatures. This catalogue describes the portrait miniatures dating from the origins of the art in the 1520s up to the end of the 17th century. Over 450 examples are included, and each is reproduced in colour, and most are actual size. The catalogue contains work by Lucas Horenbout, Hans Holbein the Younger, Nicholas Hilliard, Isaac Oliver, John Hoskins, Jean Petitot, Samuel Cooper and Charles Boit. There are portraits of virtually every sovereign from Henry VII to Queen Anne; Louis XIV and his court are well-represented, as is the house of Brunswick-Luneberg. There are likenesses too of major literary and religious figures of the period, as well as people associated with major historical events.