St. Aubert owns a miniature portrait of a mysterious woman (who turns out to be the Marchioness De Villeroi, his sister who died young), and this miniature symbolizes how the mysteries of the past continue to affect the present. When Emily first sees her father with the miniature of the Marchioness, the Marchioness has been dead for decades, and so the miniature demonstrates how the dead live on in the memory of the living. It also illustrates how art can preserve the past and endure beyond a person’s lifespan (again providing a reminder of mortality, like the black veil). Indeed, as a historical novel, The Mysteries of Udolpho is itself a work of art bringing the past back to life, showing how the events of the 1500s remained relevant in the 1700s and beyond.
Ultimately, although the mysterious miniature of the Marchioness De Villeroi seems to be nefarious, suggesting that St. Aubert had an affair with a married woman in the past, it turns out to have an innocent explanation: the late Marchioness is St. Aubert’s sister. The Marchioness died not due to any supernatural causes, but due to the scheming of the Marquis De Villeroi and Signora Laurentini. Similarly, when a miniature of Emily (who looks very similar to the Marchioness) is stolen, Emily initially suspects that there might be some supernatural involvement. But once again, the mystery has an earthly explanation: Emily’s would-be suitor Du Pont stole the miniature. While the novel suggests that God works in mysterious ways, the miniatures offer the promise that humans can unravel at least some of these mysteries without resorting to superstitious or supernatural explanations.
Miniature Quotes in The Mysteries of Udolpho
St. Aubert gazed earnestly and tenderly upon his portrait, put it to his lips, and then to his heart, and sighed with a convulsive force. Emily could scarcely believe what she saw to be real. She never knew till now that he had a picture of any other lady than her mother, much less that he had one which he evidently valued so highly; but having looked repeatedly, to be certain that it was not the resemblance of Madame St. Aubert, she became entirely convinced that it was designed for that of some other person.
At length St. Aubert returned the picture to its case; and Emily, recollecting that she was intruding upon his private sorrows, softly withdrew from the chamber.