colonial limners

I decided that today I would write about the very first person in
my book on American Artists.

That person would be Colonial Limners

So I check to see what his dates of birth and death are - because I
like to mention that.  Makes the post seem authentic - don't you
think?

Only I can't find those dates.


That's because Colonial Limners is not an Artist - but rather 
limners is a term used in 16th century England to designate
a painter of portrait miniatures. : ]


In her very good book 50 American Artists You Should Know by
Debra N. Mancott - and at this point I would like to say that not
only is this book very good, it is also easy to understand with
intelligently-written esaays and excellent examples of art - she
cites an illustration of a Self-Portrait painted by Thomas Smith - in
which he has his hand on a human skull.  Mancott explains in the article
that the skull is present as a reference to the 'transcience of human life.'

In what she calls another iconographic attribute Debra Mancott points
out a naval battle seen through the window in the painting which has
been put there by Smith to remind us of  his career as a mariner.


I am not very interested in Portrait Painting as such - with the exception
of the Mona Lisa - simply because it is beyond my realm of imagination
as to how artists can do that.  But I respect every artist that is sincerely
trying to express his feelings - with any medium.