细密画(miniature painting)

小型、精描细绘的画，通常为肖像画，用水彩画在羊皮纸、扑克牌、铜版或象牙板上，能拿在手里或作为珠宝佩戴。名称出自「铅丹」一词，以强调中世纪彩饰手抄本的首字母。结合了彩饰和对文艺复兴的纪念，细密画从16世纪早期到19世纪中期长盛不衰。可考的最早的作品由克卢埃在法国法兰西斯一世的宫廷中完成。在英国，小霍尔拜因在亨利八世的宫廷中创作了许多细密画名作，影响了绘画实践的长期传统，被称为「肖像画」。希利雅德则为伊莉莎白一世当了三十多年的细密肖像画师。17～18世纪在法国流行用瓷漆在金属上作画。义大利的卡列拉采用象牙板作为透明颜料的发光面（1700?），大大刺激了这一画法在18世纪後期的复兴。到19世纪中期，细密画被认为是奢侈品，并且由於摄影这个新方法的出现而显得过时了。

English version：

miniature painting

Small, detailed painting, usually a portrait, executed in watercolor on vellum (parchment), prepared card, copper, or ivory that can be held in the hand or worn as a piece of jewelry. The name derives from the minium, or red lead, used to emphasize initial letters in medieval illuminated manuscripts. Combining the traditions of illumination and the Renaissance medal, it flourished from the early 16th to the mid-19th century. The earliest datable examples were painted in France by Jean Clouet the Younger at the court of Francis I; in England, H. Holbein the Younger produced masterpieces in miniature under Henry VIII and inspired a long tradition of the practice, known as “limning.” Nicholas Hilliard served as miniature painter to Elizabeth I for more than 30 years. In the 17th-18th century, painting in enamel on metal became popular in France. In Italy Rosalba Carriera introduced the use of ivory (c. 1700) as a luminous surface for transparent pigments, stimulating a great revival of the medium in the late 18th century. By the mid-19th century, miniature paintings were regarded as luxury items and rendered obsolete by the new medium of photography.