| Summary: | Even though presiding over a large transatlantic empire from the 15th to the 19th centuries, Portugal remains relatively unknown, particularly in regards to miniature painting. Nevertheless a few testimonies prove this art form was practiced from the Renaissance onwards. After a period under Spanish rule, during which « small portraits » on copper influenced by Spain and Flanders prevailed, miniature painting on ivory became fashionable in Portugal during the last third of the 18th century, under French and Italian influence. Then, thanks to the Portuguese, it arrived in South America. Its development continued in Brazil from 1808 to 1821, when the royal court of Lisbon, fleeing the armies of Napoleon, settled in Rio de Janeiro.
|
|---|