Portrait Miniatures by Nicholas Hilliard

Cathy FitzGerald invites you to discover new details in old masterpieces. Each episode of Moving Pictures is devoted to a single artwork – and you’re invited to look as well as listen, by following a link to a high-resolution image made by Google Arts & Culture. Zoom in and you can see the pores of the canvas, the sweep of individual brushstrokes, the shimmer of pointillist dots.

Tiny paintings with big secrets: this episode explores two jewel-like portrait miniatures by Nicholas Hilliard. Small enough to fit in the palm of the hand, these artworks were deeply personal objects – exchanged as keepsakes, worn close to the body and sometimes hidden from view. What stories do they have to tell about love, sauciness and politicking in the Elizabethan court?

To see the high-resolution images of the paintings, visit www.bbc.co.uk/movingpictures. Scroll down and follow the links to Google Arts & Culture to explore the two miniatures by Nicholas Hilliard of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester and Queen Elizabeth I.

Interviewees: Alan Derbyshire, Christina Faraday, Elizabeth Goldring, Rosalind McKever and Emma Rutherford.

Producer and presenter: Cathy FitzGerald

Executive producer: Sarah Cuddon
Mix engineer: Mike Woolley
Art history consultant: Leah Kharibian

A White Stiletto production for BBC Radio 4

Image credits:
Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, portrait miniature, by Nicholas Hilliard, 1571 – 54, London, England. Museum no. E.1174-1988. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Queen Elizabeth I, portrait miniature, by Nicholas Hilliard, about 1595 – 1600, London, England. Museum no. 622-1882. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London