This was one of the uses of portrait miniatures—as profile pictures : “this is me in my Sunday best.”
Portrait miniatures also brought a new innovation in matchmaking. If a nobleman was proposing the marriage of his daughter, he would send a portrait miniature via courier to potential suitors.
At about half the size of an iPhone, they were convenient for carrying a picture of a loved one at all times.
Soldiers and sailors would draw comfort from them while traveling in remote corners of the world. And wives could keep a picture of their husband close to their hearts while he was away.
Small is beautiful.
Here are ten intimate expressions of love … in miniature…
By my soul, I can neither eat, drink, nor sleep; nor, what’s still worse, love any woman in the world but her.Samuel Richardson, Clarissa
In vain I have struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.Jane Austen, Pride And Prejudice
He feeds upon her face by day and night, And she with true kind eyes looks back on him, Fair as the moon and joyful as the light.Christina Rossetti, In An Artist's Studio
Love seeketh not itself to please, Nor for itself hath any care; But for another gives its ease, And builds a Heaven in Hell’s despair.William Blake, The Clod And The Pebble
Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights
Every atom of your flesh is as dear to me as my own: in pain and sickness it would still be dear.Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
I cannot let you burn me up, nor can I resist you. No mere human can stand in a fire and not be consumed.A.S. Byatt, Possession
Oh the heart that has truly loved never forgets, But as truly loves on to the close.Thomas Moore, Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms
