Elizabethan Treasures: Miniatures by Hilliard and Oliver, which opened at the London’s National Portrait Gallery on February 21, closes on May 19. The description of the exhibition is a bit of a misnomer. This should also read “…and Jacobean” because both Nicholas Hilliard (1547-1619) and the French-born Isaac Oliver (c. 1565-1617) worked at the Court of Elizabeth I, and after 1603 that of King James I. 

The first major exhibition of Tudor and Jacobean portrait miniatures held in the UK since 1983, it is also the 400th year since Hilliard’s death as well as that of James I’s Queen Anne of Denmark, who was to favour Oliver rather more with her patronage. The over 100 miniatures and other works are assembled from different sources such as the NPG’s own examples, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Royal Collection and private collections. 

Forever young, an unidentified young man by Hilliard c.1600. Photo: Granger Historical Picture Archive

Hilliard, originally from Devon, trained as a goldsmith, a craft he did not totally abandon after he became the leading miniaturist not only in England but also much appreciated abroad. It is not known how he made this transition but he never completely abandoned it and one of the finest of gold medals of the period on display in this exhibition is the Peace Medal of 1604 which Hilliard designed on a  commission by King James I to mark the end of the long war between England and Spain. Oliver was born to a French Huguenot family around 1565 and when he was about two years old his family moved to London as refugees and remained there.

For a while Oliver was apprenticed to Hilliard but by the early 1590s they went their separate ways. They were to become the first truly famous English artists with a reputation abroad based on the excellence of their work. It is interesting to note that even with regard to the rich and powerful who patronised these two artists, this was a reflection of what was going on in the labyrinthine corridors of power surrounding the monarchs. Intrigue and jostling for power could be a dangerous thing if one were to be seen as too attached to one faction and not the others.

Known as limners for their being well-versed with the illuminated MSS techniques, these artists explore what their miniatures reveal about various aspects of Elizabethan and Jacobean high society. The latter were not unfamiliar with Italian art and they soon dubbed Hilliard and Oliver as England’s Michelangelo and Raphael.

The artists themselves are seen in their own self-portraits and their work extended down to the rich middle/merchant classes

Both portrayed the Queen but that is where the similarity stopped. Hilliard chose to flatter the very vain Queen as never-ageing and youthful. Oliver was more realistic and his familiarity with continental Flemish and Italian art enabled him to be more accurate with his use of chiaroscuro. He did not flatter his sitters and the Queen was not amused but at least she didn’t send him to The Tower.

On the contrary, Hilliard had the Queen’s favour which is how he found himself attached to her ambassador to the French Court, Sir Amyas Paulet, in 1575-1577. It is to this period that two magnificent oils on display belong.

Not so very long ago these were declared very rare authentic works by Hilliard of the Queen and Paulet painted on oakwood. They were probably put on prominent display at the English embassy.

From about the same period is another rarity by Hilliard. At first believed to be a Victorian work (its frame definitely is), this miniature was discovered in France about three years ago and is of King Henri III of France. While still Duke of Anjou he had ‘courted’ Elizabeth rather half-heartedly. Elizabeth flirted as she did later with his younger brother (her “little Frog” she called the latter) but never had any real intention of marrying either of them.

It is said that she did come close to marrying her long-time “Sweet Robin” – Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester, whose miniature is on display and so are many other famous and familiar faces like Drake, Francis Bacon (the philosopher), Sir Walter Raleigh and the Earl of Essex who were to lose their heads: the former under James I and the latter under Elizabeth; Shakespeare’s patron, the Earl of Southampton, with his impossibly long hair flowing down on one side of his face, the three Brown brothers inspired by the classical Three Graces, the Duke of Lennox and Richmond.

The miniatures of members of James I’s family have a special poignant appeal. Queen Anne and her superfine blonde hair almost speaks to one as she gazes out of her miniature. The vigorous Henry Prince of Wales, so promising but whose life was cut short at 18, looks boldly ahead while his younger brother, the still beardless Duke of York (later King Charles) I looks at one with a face full of gentle goodness: a good man but a future bad King.

The artists themselves are seen in their own self-portraits and their work extended down to the rich middle/merchant classes. This was more Oliver’s domain. There is a charmingly realistic pair of miniatures of sitters who are obviously sisters, anonymous as several other women aristocrats and not, young men rapt with love in a flowered ambience, or sitting under a tree meditating. There is also a rare Hilliard pencil drawing of a 12-year-old boy.

Two things stand clear: Hilliard could not really handle open spaces as background, quite unlike Oliver who had a better sense of perspective. In his old age, Hilliard ended up a rather poor man and died in obscurity, aged 72. The three-times-married Oliver died at a much younger age, at about 52, and the exact date of death is not known except that he was buried in October 1617. Rather sad but their fame lives on in their superb work.