Author: Melanie V Taylor

Freelance lecturer on art history and all aspects of history. Currently researching the creators of illuminated manuscripts of the latter part of the 15th century. Principal of Ashtead Art Lovers - founded in 2007.
portrait miniature

Nicholas Hilliard (1547-1619)

Melanie V Taylor

Nicholas Hilliard 1577 (Copyright V&A Museum, London. 41mm dia) We know little about Nicholas Hilliard.  The bare facts are that he was born in Exeter in about 1547, to Richard and Laurance Hilliard and was their eldest child.  Richard Hilliard was a goldsmith and, together with John Bodley, was a leading light in Exeter society.  … Continue reading Nicholas Hilliard (1547-1619)

poetry and portraiture

Mine eye hath play’d the painter

Melanie V Taylor

Mine eye hath play’d the painter and hath steel’d  Thy beauty’s form in the table of my heart;  My body is the frame wherein ’tis held,  And perspective is the painter’s art.  For through the painter must you see his skill, To find where your true image pictured lies;  Which in my bosom’s shop is… Continue reading Mine eye hath play’d the painter

portrait miniature, Portraiture

Amy Robsart (1532-1560) – possibly!

Melanie V Taylor

Another theory regarding the Yale miniature. Is it Amy Robsart and who is it painted by?

poetry and portraiture, portrait miniature, Portraiture

Alice Hilliard

Melanie V Taylor

Hilliard’s lovely portrait of his beloved Alice now in the V&A, London