The miniature emerged as an independent artistic genre of small-format paintings in the 16th century. The term was taken from book illustration (Latin minium, the pigment red lead, which was used to decorated initial letters and headings in medieval manuscripts). Often used simply as a synonym for a book illustration, it was transferred to small paintings because, like book illustrations, they were very small and meticulously detailed. The miniature in the early modern period was primarily a domain of portraitu…