MINIATURE, in a general sense, signifies representation in a small compass, or less than the reality.
A DELICATE kind of painting, distinguished from every other species of that art by the following particulars. 1. It is more delicate. 2. It requires a nearer view. 3. It is not easily done but in little. 4. It is wrought only upon vellum, paper, or ivory; and the colours are diluted only with gum-water.
To succeed in this art, a man should be perfectly skilled in the art of designing or drawing: but as most people who affect the one, know little or nothing of the other, and would have the pleasure of painting, without giving themselves the trouble of learning to design, (which is indeed an art that is not acquired without a great deal of time, and continual application), inventions have been found out to supply the place of it; by means of which a man designs or draws, without knowing how to design.
The first is chalking: that is, if you have a mind to do a print or design in miniature, the back-side of it, or another paper, must be blackened with small-coal, and then rubbed very hard with the finger wrapped in a linen cloth: afterwards the cloth must be lightly drawn over the side so blackened that no black grains may remain upon it to soil the vellum you would paint upon; and the print or draught must be fastened upon the vellum with four pins, to keep it from shifting. And if it be another paper that is blackened, it must be put between the vellum and the print, or draught, with the blackened side upon the vellum. Then, with a blunted pin or needle, you must pass over the principal lines or strokes of the print, or draught, the contours, the plaits of the drapery, and over every thing else that must be distinguished; pressing so hard, that the strokes may be fairly marked upon the vellum underneath.
Copying by squares is another convenient method for such as are but little skilled in the art of designing, and would copy pictures, or other things, that cannot be chalked. The method is this: The piece must be divided into many equal parts by little squares, marked out with charcoal, if the piece be clear and whitish, and the black can be fairly seen upon it; or with white chalk, if it be too brown and dusky. After which, as many squares of equal dimensions must be made on white paper, upon which the piece must be designed; because, if this be done immediately upon vellum, (as one is apt to miscarry in the first attempt), the vellum may be soiled with false touches. But when it is neatly done upon paper, it must be chalked upon the vellum in the manner before described. When the original and the paper are thus ordered, observe what is in each square of the piece to be designed; as a head, an arm, a hand, and so forth; and place it in the corresponding part of the paper. And thus finding where to place all the parts of the piece, you have nothing to
do but to form them well, and to join them together. By this method you may reduce or enlarge a piece to what compass you please, making the squares of your paper greater or lesser than those of the original; but they must always be of an equal number.
To copy a picture, or other thing, in the same size and proportion, another method is, to make use of varnished paper, or of the skin of a hog's bladder, very transparent, such as is to be had at the gold-beaters. Tale or ifinglafs will likewise do as well. Lay any one of those things upon your piece; through it you will see all the strokes and touches; which are to be drawn upon it with a crayon or pencil. Then take it off; and fastening it under paper or vellum, set up both against the light in the manner of a window; and with a crayon, or a silver needle, mark out upon the paper or vellum you have put uppermost, all the lines and touches you shall see drawn upon the varnished paper, bladder, tale, or ifinglafs, you have made use of, and which will plainly appear through this window.
After this manner, making use of the window, or of glass exposed to the light, you may copy all sorts of prints, designs, and other pieces, on paper or vellum; laying and fastening them under the paper or vellum upon which you would draw them. And it is a very good and a very easy contrivance for doing pieces of the same size and proportion.
If you have a mind to make pieces look another way, there is nothing to be done but to turn them; laying the printed or drawn side upon the glass, and fastening the paper or vellum upon the back of it; remembering to let your lights fall on the left side.
A good method likewise to take a true copy of a picture in oil, is to give a touch of the pencil upon all the principal strokes, with lake tempered with oil; and to clap upon the whole a paper of the same size: then passing the hand over it, the touches of the lake will stick and leave the design of your piece expressed upon the paper, which may be chalked like other things. But you must remember to take off with the crumb of bread what remains of the lake upon the picture before it be dry.
You must likewise make use of pounce, made of powdered charcoal put in a linen-rag; with which the piece you would copy must be rubbed, after you have pricked all the principal strokes or touches, and fastened white paper or vellum underneath.
But a surer and easier help than all these for one who knows nothing of designing, is a mathematical compass; it is generally made of ten pieces of wood, in form of rulers, half a quarter of an inch thick, half an inch broad, and a foot long, or more, according as you have a mind to draw pieces of a greater or lesser size. To facilitate the construction of this instrument, a figure is given, with an explanation of the manner in which it is to be used.
The little board A is to be of fir, and covered with
linen,