History of miniature

The art of miniature painting is many hundreds of years old. The earliest examples in the Western world are to be found in the illuminated capital letters of ancient church manuscripts. Decorated often with pure gold leaf, these tiny pictures showed scenes of everyday mediaeval life, scenes from the Bible, or portraits of saints and angels.

After the invention of the printing press, the skill of the illuminators was turned to the painting of exquisite miniature portraits for rich merchants and royalty. These jewel-like works of art were small enough to be held in the palm of the hand and were carried much as we carry family photos today.

With the introduction of photography in the middle of the 19th century, the art of the miniature was in danger of being lost. However, the 20th century has seen a tremendous increase in interest. Today there are many fine miniature painters (and, no, we are not all vertically challenged) covering all subjects under the sun.

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Miniature artist

A Staunch miniature painting loyalist Shri Damodar Sharma is an artist who has kept alive an art form that is now on the decline. Hailing from chomu, a small mofusil town of Rajasthan (India), Shri Sharma has mastered this art and carved out a name for him in this field. He uses gold, lapis lozuli, and other precious and semi-precious stones, barks of trees, leaves and flowers to create natural colors that never lose their shine.

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