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manuscript illumination
Sign in to saveAlso known as miniature painting, miniature, illumination, illuminated miniature
picture in an ancient or medieval illuminated manuscript
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- genre
- Subclass of
- painting
- Image
- Angers Book of Hours (folio 13r).jpg
- Said to be same as
- art of illumination
Show 4 more facts
- fabrication method
- art of illumination
- Commons category
- Miniatures (illuminated manuscripts)
- on focus list of Wikimedia project
- Wikipedia:Vital articles/Level/4
- P13411
- Q2207
Sources (1)
via Wikidata · CC0
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Encyclopedic overview
Miniature of Sinon and the Trojan Horse, from the Vergilius Romanus, a manuscript of Virgil's Aeneid, early 5th century
A miniature (from the Latin verb miniare 'to colour with minium', a red lead) is a small illustration used to decorate an ancient or medieval illuminated manuscript; the simple illustrations of the early codices having been miniated or delineated with that pigment. The generally small scale of such medieval pictures has led to etymological confusion with minuteness and to its application to small paintings, especially portrait miniatures, which did however grew from the same tradition and at least initially used similar techniques.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “manuscript illumination” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.