Hilliard, Nicholas (c. 1547-1619)

The ‘Armada Jewel’, now kept in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England, was made in England c. 1585-90, and was probably destined to be a gift for Queen Elizabeth I. Its inner lid carries a miniature of the queen by the English miniaturist Nicholas Hilliard, and is set with diamonds. On the outside of the lid is a Tudor rose.

Portrait of an Unknown Young Man against a Background of Flames, by English miniaturist Nicholas Hilliard, was painted for a locket. The fashion for miniatures, with their rather mannered subjects, was at its height in the late 16th century, and they were usually commissioned as gifts.

English miniaturist and goldsmith. Court artist to Elizabeth I and James I, he painted many leading figures of Tudor and Stuart society, including Francis Drake, Walter Raleigh, and Mary Queen of Scots, as well as several portraits of Elizabeth I herself. Some of his minatures, in particular An Unknown Young Man Amid Roses (c. 1590; Victoria and Albert Museum, London), place the sitter in a closely observed natural setting.

Hilliard wrote, but never published, a book on his practise, The Arte of Limninge, in 1593. In this, he says he based his style on that of Hans Holbein the Younger, but he also probably learned from contemporary French artists (he visited France in the 1570s); he seems not, on the other hand, to have imitated Levina Teelinc. After 1600 he was gradually superseded by his pupil Isaac Oliver. His son Lawrence Hilliard (1582-after 1640) was also a miniaturist.