OPENING: DECEMBER 5 | 6 PM TO 9 PM CLOSING: JANUARY 2015

Please join us as we celebrate the art of the miniature. Miniature art is a genre that focuses on art (especially painting, engraving and sculpture) in much-smaller-than-usual sizes. An often-used definition is that a piece of miniature art is capable of being held in the palm of the hand, or that it covers less than 100 cm² (about 4 inches x 4 inches). 

In many of the world's civilizations there was a fascination with creating in small scale. Ancient Greeks adorned their walls with small murals while coins and rings often bore engraved portraits. In Persia, the shahs maintained the best artists of the day to paint the court and illustrate copies of the Qur'an and other great books, both religious and secular. Monks in the Middle Ages embellished manuscripts with delicate illuminations and bordered them with a red lead pigment called 'minium' from which the word 'miniature' later evolved.

The Elizabethan era was noted for its exquisite miniature portraits on vellum and later, ivory. Easily carried in pocket or locket, they served much as photographs do today and represented a very personal form of art.