Miniaturmalerei

Miniature Painting, term used in art history on the one hand for Book Illumination,and on the other for all small-format paintings (whether on wood, metal, silk or other materials) and in particular miniature portraits, which experienced their first flowering in the 16th century and rose to particular importance in the 18th and 19th centuries and were finally superseded by photography. Miniature portraits were mostly painted in water-colour or gouache technique on thin ivory tablets whose transparency allowed additional effects when enhanced by the application of foil or paints on the rear. Leading representatives of miniature portraiture in Austria were F. H. Füger and M. M. Daffinger, as well as C. Agricola, A. von Anreiter, J. Kriehuber and others; noteworthy foreign artists who worked in Vienna for some time included J.-É. Liotard and J.-B. Isabey.

Literature: L. Schidlof, The Miniature in Europe, 1964; Meisterwerke der europäischen Miniaturmalerei von 1750 bis 1850, exhibition catalogue Vienna 1965; H. Fuchs, Die österreichische Bildnisminiatur, 2 vols., 1981/82.