Double vision: portrait miniatures and embedded likeness in early America
Date
2015
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
This thesis examines the important social, cultural, and symbolic roles that portrait miniatures performed in the Early Republic. These small, mobile art objects accomplished a variety of functions both as physical objects and symbolic touchpoints when they became "embedded" or referenced visually and textually in other artistic works. In order to develop a better understanding of the multifaceted nature of portrait miniatures, this thesis explores the role and placement of these objects within large-scale oil portraits, miniatures, prints, and literature to investigate why American sitters, patrons, and artists wished to display and integrate smaller portraits into larger works. This work also analyzes the circulation of portrait miniatures as objects that served to connect individuals physically, emotionally, and otherwise in the early republic. In this thesis I propose the "minute view", one that was at once intensely concentrated but was representative of social, familial, and national networks on a large scale. The inclusion of these objects in the visual, material, and literary worlds of the post-revolutionary period, helps to place these objects within the framework of the language of portrait miniatures in an American context.