The English painter Nicholas Hilliard (ca. 1547-1619) executed miniature portraits of Queen Elizabeth I and her courtiers, set in jeweled lockets, that are the most original and characteristic pictures painted in England in the late 16th century.

Nicholas Hilliard was born in Exeter. His father was a goldsmith, and Nicholas was apprenticed to a goldsmith by 1562. About 1570 he entered the royal service as limner (miniature painter) and goldsmith, in which capacity he designed the Second Great Seal of the Kingdom.

Hilliard's earliest surviving miniatures, painted when he was 13, are reminiscent of the little round portraits decorating the illuminated manuscript Commentairs de la Guerre Gallique (ca. 1519). They also resemble the work of Hans Holbein the Younger, who had produced superb miniatures in London before 1543. "Holbein's manner of limning I have ever imitated," wrote Hilliard. But he defined eyes, lips, curls, and lace with needlesharp precision, creating a brittle arabesque...