669 



MINIATURE. 



MINING. 



G70 



miniatori in the manuscripts executed by them for noble patrons ; and 

 after the decline of the practice of illuminating books, the production 

 of portrait miniatures for placing in lockets, frames, or cabinets, seems 

 to have quickly grown into fashion. Ivory was early adopted as a 

 more suitable ground than vellum for independent works, and _ its 

 adoption led to a change in the technical processes. In mediaeval 

 miniatures, body colours or colours rendered opaque by the admix- 

 ture of white-^were alone employed, and the ground or vellum was 

 entirely concealed, the brilliancy of effect being obtained by the 

 colours themselves. In modern portrait miniatures, the painters have 

 very generally employed transparent colours, at least for the flesh 

 tints ; finding that the peculiar texture and semi-trausparency of the 

 ivory by showing through the tints of. transparent colours caused them 

 to " bear out," as it is termed, with great brilliancy, besides imparting 

 an exquisite softness, and much of that " inner light " which is so 

 pleasing in carnations. 



The ivory for miniatures is cut in very thin sheets, so as to retain as 

 much as possible of its semi-diaphonous character, and when mounted, 

 is " backed" by some perfectly white material. The painting is executed 

 in water-colours, but by a process differing entirely from that known as 

 water-colour painting. Ivory having a smooth and non-absorbent surface, 

 the colour cannot be floated on in washes, or flat tints, laid one over 

 another. The flesh tints and other parts requiring great delicacy of 

 finish, are therefore entirely dotted, stippled, or hatched upon the 

 surface. In the draperies and back-grounds, the colours are however 

 often washed in with flat tints, the inequalities of tint or surface being 

 afterwards got rid of, and the whole worked up by careful stippling. A 

 mez/.otinto scraper, and sometimes an engraver's point or needle, is 

 used for removing lights, securing due graduation of tints, &c. Gum 

 is the only vehicle used with the colours besides water. Formerly, 

 it was usual to execute the drapery and background of miniatures 

 in body-colours, but the value of the ivory surface is thus lost, and 

 the brilliancy lessened ; while the general balance and harmony are 

 almost always injured by the combination of opaque with transparent 

 colours. The use of opaque colours has therefore been almost entirely 

 abandoned by the best English miniature painters ; though retained 

 by French artists, who, it must be confessed, have employed them 

 with great tact and skill. 



Until of late years miniatures were almost invariably confhjed to the 

 face and bust of a figure. They now often comprise the entire person, 

 with all the accessories common to a "whole-length" portrait on 

 canvas, and are painted on a sheet of ivory of a size which almost 

 removes them from the class of minatures. The process is, however, 

 the same in these as in the bust portrait, where the adoption of a larger 

 scale does not call for a somewhat larger handling. Sheets of ivory of 

 sufficient size for these large miniatures as we must call them for 

 want of a more appropriate term cannot, of course, be cut from the 

 diameter of an elephant's tusk, as are those for miniatures of the ordi- 

 nary size. They are, in fact, thin veneers sawn from the circumference 

 of the tooth, as described under IVORY, steamed and flattened under 

 hydraulic pressure, and fastened with a composition of india-rubber 

 to a mahogany panel. Some of these large paintings on ivory, as 

 executed by Mr. Thorburn and others, have a broad and masterly 

 effect ; but they are after all hardly to be regarded as miniatures, and 

 certainly do not possess the special characteristics of works of that class. 

 11 the nature of the process miniature-painting requires great 

 refinement of taste, dexterity and delicacy of hand, and patience in the 

 artist. It recommends itself by the extreme softness, delicacy, and 

 brilliancy of colour, and the portability and durability of its produc- 

 tions ; and it has been pursued with great diligence and success in most 

 countries, but especially in England, France and Italy. From the first 

 the art has been successfully prosecuted in England. It appears to have 

 been introduced by foreigners ; but from the time of Nicholas Billiard, 

 limner to Queen Elizabeth and her successor, who learned the art 

 from Holbein, England has always possessed miniature painters at least 

 on a level with the best of their contemporaries. Among the imme- 

 diate successors of Milliard were Isaac and Peter Oliver, from the 

 former of whom, in some respects still unrivalled as a miniature 

 painter, we have portraits of several of the most illustrious of the 

 remarkable men of his time. To them succeeded Alexander Hoskins 

 and .Samuel Cooper, and the latter, scarce inferior even to Isaac Oliver, 

 has preserved the best likenesses of several of the most famous of the 

 Commonwealth men, including Oliver Cromwell and John Milton. 

 We need not continue the list : it will be enough to say that, whilst 

 English miniature painters have always occupied a foremost place in 

 their branch of art, it has been admitted even by foreign critics, that 

 the English miniatures of the last and present generation unquestion- 

 ably take precedence of those of the Continent. But whilst the artists 

 have secured so honourable a position, the art itself appears doomed 

 to give way before the advance of photography, as the miniature- 

 painting of the medievalists did before printing^ Some of the best of 

 our living miniature-painters have wholly or in part abandoned the 

 practice of this branch uf painting, and others of an inferior order are 

 devoting themselves to painting " photographic miniatures," or minia- 

 tures of which the basis is a feebly developed photographic positive. 

 It is however to be hoped that fashion may show sufficient encourage- 

 to the true miniature painter to preserve from decay this delight- 

 ful branch of art. The practice of painting photographic miniatures 



can hardly fail to develope a mechanical mode of painting which can 

 scarcely rank as a fine art, however advantageous the study of photo- 

 graphic portraits may be, as an aid, to the miniature painter. 



We cannot refer to a collection of portrait miniatures in either of 

 our national museums ; but several private collections have been 

 formed in emulation, and partly from the debris, of jthe famous Straw- 

 berry Hill collection of Horace Walpole. Among the most celebrated 

 are those of the Dukes of Portland, Buecleuch, Hamilton, Marlborough, 

 and Northumberland, which embrace a large number of specimens 

 from the Tudor period downwards. A choice selection from these and 

 other collections was brought together at the Manchester Art Treasures' 

 Exhibition of 1857;^and another, but comparatively'private exhibition, 

 was made partly from the same collections by the Archaological Insti- 

 tute, London, in the summer of 1860. 



MINIM, in Music, a character, or note, formed of a round open 

 head, and a stem descending or ascending from its right side 



When first introduced, the minim was the shortest note in music 

 as its name (from minimus, the least) indicates. It is half as long 

 in duration as the semibreve, and double that of the crotchet. 

 [CROTCHET.] 



MINIMS, or MINIMI, also called Pauliners, an order of religious 

 whose asceticism exceeded even that of the Franciscans, of whom 

 they were considered a branch. They were instituted about the year 

 1436, by Saint Francis de Paxila, under the name of Hermits of Saint 

 Francis, and confirmed in 1474 by Sixtus IV. Alexander II. changed 

 the name of the order to that of Minims, as marking the humility of 

 then- order. In France they had the name of Bons-hommes ; and in 

 Spain that of the Fathers of Victory, in consequence of Ferdinand IV. 

 gaining a victory over the Moors, according to a prediction of Saint 

 Francis de Paula. In Spain a convent of nuns of this order was 

 founded as early as 1495, followed in the course of time by other 

 similar establishments. In France there was no female convent of 

 this order till 1621 : when one was established at Abbeville, and 

 another subsequently at Soissons. No house of this order was ever 

 established in England. 



MINING. The art of mining embraces the contrivance and manage- 

 ment of the operations necessary to effect the various objects requisite 

 in a mine, as the discovery of mineral deposits, the preliminary trials 

 of the value, and the final extraction of their produce by means of 

 suitable excavations and the application of the requisite machinery. 

 These occupations may be said to constitute the business of the miner 

 in the more comprehensive signification of the term, and it will be 

 evident that they demand an extensive range of acquirements in which 

 knowledge, both practical and scientific, must be blended. 



History of Mining. A regular or detailed history of mining, how- 

 ever interesting in itself, would far exceed the limits of this article ; 

 we shall therefore briefly glance over some of the most important steps 

 by which mankind have been led to their present bold and extensive 

 operations for the extraction of metals and other mineral substances. 

 The use of the metals, and consequently some process for their extrac- 

 tion and separation, may be traced to the most remote antiquity, and 

 is there lost in the obscurity which veils the early history of our species. 

 Moses ascribes the first use and manufacture of the metals to Tubal- 

 Cain, the seventh in descent from Adam, who is said to have been the 

 " instructor of every artificer in brass and iron." Upon so brief a 

 notice we are not entitled to build much, but it proves nevertheless 

 that the use of the metals is almost coeval with the human race. 

 Profane history likewise shows that it was known to the earliest 

 nations of antiquity, as to the Assyrians, the Greeks, and Egyptians, 

 Gold and silver were abundant among the ancients j an alloy of copper 

 and tin formed the armour and weapons of the Greeks, although iron 

 was not unknown among them, and of this metal the Roman weapons 

 were formed. These facts do not, however, imply any great know- 

 ledge of mining, properly so called, as it is well known that metal- 

 liferous deposits are often found near the surface, frequently in a 

 state of extreme purity, as gold and copper for example ; and in early 

 ages, when they had been so much less ransacked by the miner, these 

 superficial deposits must have been much more abundant than at 

 present, and probably furnished a large proportion of the metallic 

 produce of those times. Most of the mines of antiquity were pro- 

 bably of a similar nature to the stream-works of Cornwall, and it 

 appears from Strabo * (175, Casaub.) that the Phoenicians at that 

 early time used to trade to Cornwall for tin and lead. In early times 

 the demand for the metals could not have been very great ; their use 

 was then either as instruments of luxury or war, and thus confined 

 to a limited class, so the quantity found near the surface was in all 

 probability fully adequate, leaving but little inducement for deeper 

 and more laborious research. 



There is, however, evidence enough to show that operations similar 

 to those of modern mining were carried on by the nations of anti- 

 quity. Herodotus (vi. 46, 47) observes that a mountain in the island 

 of Thasoa was completely burrowed by the Phoenicians in their search 



Strabo speaks of the Cassiteridcs, which can be no other place than 

 Cornwall or the Scilly Islands ; probably the former. 



