Small is Beautiful: The Art of the Miniaturist in the Middle Ages with Arts Society accredited lecturer Dr Sally Dormer

“Small is beautiful”, a phrase made famous by economist Fritz Schumacher’s eponymous 1973 publication was as relevant to the arts of the Middle Ages as to contemporary economics. The medieval world view credited God with expending equal amounts of attention and skill whether he was creating on a macro or micro scale; a tiny marine creature was as important as the sea in which it swam. Such spiritual precedents, combined with the high cost of precious materials, promoted a general appreciation of the diminutive in medieval art, particularly in Northern Europe. This study day will focus on three categories of objects made on a miniature scale, created by craftsmen justly described as miniaturists: hardstone cameos and intaglios; miniature illuminated manuscripts; and Byzantine micro-mosaics. All three products were treasured by medieval patrons and continue to elicit admiration from modern audiences, astonished at superlative craftsmanship on a minute scale.

In venue (Winchester) and online via Zoom

Part of the 2025 Jean Bolton Memorial Study Course. Also booking:

• Friday 7th November 2025 - Precious, Portable, Private: Miniature Art in the Renaissance with Dr Paula Nuttall
  Friday 14th November 2025 - Art in Miniature in the 17th and 18th Centuries with Clare Ford-Wille
  Friday 21st November 2025 - The Nightingale and the Pearl: The Russian Arts in Miniature with Dr Rosamund Bartlett
  Friday 28th November 2025 - Worlds in Miniature – the Microcosm in 19th-Century Art with Dr Kathy McLauchlan