“it seemeth to be the thing itsefe”: Directness and Intimacy in Nicholas Hilliard’s Portrait Miniatures

Abstract

In recent scholarship, the portrait miniature has been seen as a symptom of privacy in Elizabethan culture. Nicholas Hilliard’s miniatures in particular are seen as promising to reveal the “Elizabethan self” while simultaneously concealing it behind layers of rooms, cases and intricate painted ornament. Meanwhile, Hilliard’s comment that “all painting imitateth nature, or the life in every thing” is set at odds with characterisations of his style, which is often seen as “anti-naturalistic” and symbolic rather than realistic. This paper offers a new approach to these issues, arguing that miniatures were not viewed as anti-naturalistic or private, but vividly realistic and socially-orientated.