The word "miniature" shares ancestry with such words as minium and illuminate.
Miniatures were detailed paintings used in religeous manuscripts and were to illuminate stories and moral lessons. Examples of these illuminated manuscripts would be Books of Hours, the famous Book of Kells and the Sarajevo Haggadah. All known for their beautiful and detailed illuminations.
The Christian monastic illuminators would then furthur emphasize their art by putting a series of red lead dots around some of their images. This red led was called "minium'".
On the secular side of art during this midieval time, detailed and accurate techniques of painting had evolved from the illuminated manuscript. These painters were used for arranging marriages and also would be sent ahead of a visiting ambassador as proof of his identity.
Paintings used to arrange marriages and to guarantee the ID of an ambassador had to travel and as a result, had to be small enough to travel in luggage or saddlebags. This is how the word "miniature" came into existance and came to be associated with smallness. but in reality, a miniature painting isnt a size, it is a technique.
The miniature technique is a series of transparent layers of glazes which are then lifted off to allow the layers beneath to show thru. Between each layer is a transparent colourless layer which allows light again to then come thru the paintings. So really, a miniature is a painting which relies on the subtle use of light. And now we are back to the word "illuminate" which means "to give light". Full circle.
I call my large paintings, "giant miniatures" because I still use isolating layers to allow the light to come thru.
Since switching to large paintings, .
