Miniature painting was first instituted in the 16th century. The first testified time the word miniature was used in English to describe an art form was in the writings of Sir Philip Sidney in 1586 when he compared the life-sized reflections of women playing in the water with the miniature reflections of them in the bubbles formed by the spattering. Yet, antecedents to the miniature genre are occasionally found in the works of unknown artists 250 A.D.; and Lala of Cyzicus in Rome, who focused on little portraits made by drawing on top of ivory, during the 4th century.

Standard miniature art is located all over Persia, India, Turkey, and other far eastern countries from before the year 1400, in the form of manuscript illumination. The red pigment habitually used by the transcribers in these manuscripts is called minium, an etymological start of our modern word miniature.

Miniature art flower painting

Miniature paintings then began to be found separated from manuscripts. Jean Clouet of France is credited with crafting the first portrait autonomous of a manuscript. His successors and contemporaries, Luke Hornebolte and Hans Holbein of Germany are accredited with being the first miniature portrait painters in England. After moving to England in 1526 Holbein turned into the court painter to Henry the 8th and during his time there, miniature painting commenced to be known as limning. 

The first testimony of the usage of the term miniature in English dates to 1586.

Miniature painting remained rising itself, particularly through the hands and talent of artists Nicholas Hilliard and his apprentice Isaac Oliver. Until the year 1700, when it reached its peak popularity. 

The freshly founded American colonies had artists practicing miniatures, and even Charles Peale created a gallery in the United States in 1782 focusing on miniature portraits. 

The institution of the Daguerreotype in 1839 begun the photography age and ended the business boom for miniature artists. The few performing miniaturists dreaded the end of their art form. 

A renewal of appeal in miniature painting happened at the end of the nineteenth century, concluding in May 1896, when miniature artist Alyn Williams developed The Society of Miniaturists in England.

Flower miniature painting

In 1896, two societies were founded at approximately the same time, and despite diplomatic struggles, the two were not capable to come to terms on which society was inaugurated first or had a suitable right to the title “Society of Miniaturists”. The Society founded by Alyn Williams became the leading group and is today known as the Royal Society of Miniature Painters, Sculptors & Gravers (RMS).

Three years later, in 1899, the American Society of Miniature Painters (ASMP) was created by acknowledged artists of conservative sized work that have been charmed into working in miniature. They had their opening exhibition in January of 1900 at Knoedler Galleries in New York. 

In 1974 The Miniature Art Society of Florida was established by Bede Zel Angle. MASF is the principal association of miniaturists in the world with a membership near 500 associates. They hold the largest annual miniature exhibition in the world each January in the Clearwater with around 900 miniature works in display. 

In 1985, the Miniature Artists of America is founded to revere exceptional practitioners of contemporary miniature art in America. 

Yellow Miniature painting

Later, in 2007, the Association of Miniature Artists (AMA) was created by Wes Siegrist and initiated by just about twenty-five miniaturists. The AMA became the world’s first average description for miniature art as obeyed by miniaturists, societies, and exhibitions. Finally, in 2010, Wes Siegrist printed Modern Masters of Miniature Art in America with the assistance of his fellow Officers of the Miniature Artists of America in commemoration of their 25th Anniversary; the book is addressed as the “go-to” basis for miniaturists and fans for awareness into the genre of miniature art.