The dimly lit miniaturist’s gallery in the Victoria & Albert Museum enthralls us with its tiny likenesses, painted by artists called “miniaturists.” When viewed with a magnifying glass, these miraculously detailed masterpieces achieve a breathtaking three-dimensional quality. Viewing people from the past in such an intimate way magically transports the viewer into the past, when these tiny portraits were carried as tokens of love and affection, sometimes journeying thousands of miles to distant lands during an era of British exploration and expansion. Eventually, a few miniaturists traveled to those distant lands themselves. With a few miniaturists based in India, the exchange of portraits between Britain and India became cheap and easy.…