Long before we kept photos of the people we love on our phones, people kept them in their pockets, on chains around their necks, inside lockets and on the lids of little boxes. They were called portrait miniatures: tiny paintings, often no bigger than a coin, painted with astonishing precision.
A face to hold in your palm
Miniatures were popular in Europe from the sixteenth century onwards. They were painted on vellum, card, ivory or enamel, with very fine brushes and often a magnifying glass. A miniature could be a gift between lovers, a keepsake for a soldier going to war, a memorial for someone who had died, or a portrait sent to a future spouse before a royal marriage.
Unlike large portraits made to hang on walls and impress visitors, miniatures were private. They were meant to be held, looked at closely, kissed, hidden.
The lover's eye
In the late eighteenth century, a strange and beautiful fashion appeared, especially in Britain: the "lover's eye". Instead of a whole face, the miniature showed just one eye, often surrounded by pearls or gold. Because a single eye was hard to recognize, the wearer could keep the identity of their beloved secret.
The fashion is often linked to the future King George IV, who is said to have sent his secret love, Maria Fitzherbert, a miniature of his eye around 1785. Whether or not it began exactly that way, eye miniatures became a small craze for a few decades, and some survive today in museums.
What miniatures teach about love
A miniature asks for closeness. You can't look at one from across the room. You have to bring it near, under good light, and give it your full attention. In that sense, it's a kind of meditation on someone: a way of holding their face, quietly, in the middle of an ordinary day.
Your own miniature
Choose a small photograph of someone you love, the old-fashioned kind, printed. Keep it somewhere you'll find it unexpectedly: inside a book, a wallet, a coat pocket. When you find it, stop for a moment and really look.
Something to hold
The Letter & Magazine subscription sends you a letter and a postcard every month, small enough to slip into a pocket, with a meditation and a story about art inside, plus a seasonal issue of "(meditating) On Art". Keepsakes for the modern era.
Remember to take as much time as you need, and meet me at the next one.
Love, Evi