Pain­ted Love

The miniature collection will be on display "extra muros" in 2024, in the classicist Villa Lindengut in Winterthur, where the Historical Society welcomes couples and couples wishing to marry say "I do". During the Painted Love exhibition, the path to the wedding room will be lined with precious objects that symbolize love.

Portrait miniatures are the result of relationships; sometimes they themselves establish a connection or are a pledge of the absence of a loved one. In the marriage policy of royal families and the nobility, portraits were exchanged, and it was not uncommon for a painter, sent to a foreign court, to paint a portrait of a potential bride. Lovers gave each other their own portraits, parents carried the portraits of their children with them, and spouses - on business trips or on distant war missions - that of their wife and child.

The message of thinking of one another, of the close bond between lovers, was conveyed in many different ways: a hand on the heart expressed love, a look directed towards the sky expressed longing for the person being admired. Well-known symbols were the attributes of Venus and Cupid: heart, bow and arrow. Occasionally the people portrayed were shown with a letter, some writing and others reading it. Popular floral attributes were roses, forget-me-nots and pansies (French pensée). Women with bare breasts sent just as clearly erotic signals as men with loose ties and open shirts. Sometimes miniatures, which could be easily concealed, depicted unmistakably intimate scenes.

The imagined closeness to the person portrayed was accompanied by a physical one; miniatures were worn as jewelry on one's own skin. The back was often decorated with the person portrayed's inlaid hair, which added additional charge to the image through their physical presence. The abundance of love messages presented illustrates the intimacy of this special genre of image: the portrait miniature as a rich casket of the most intimate feelings.

Curator: Sonja Remensberger