CLOVIO, Giulio

(1498-1578)

Giulio Clovio, called by Giorgio Vasari* the "new and miniature Michelan­gelo," was the greatest manuscript illuminator of the sixteenth century in Italy. Born in Croatia, Clovio traveled to Italy at the age of eighteen to practice his art. He entered the artistic circle of the important Grimani family and trained under Giulio Romano.* Around 1523 he left Italy and worked for Louis II of Hungary, but after the Turkish invasion of 1526, he returned to Rome.

Following his experiences as a prisoner during the sack of Rome in 1527, Clovio took holy orders and joined a monastery in Mantua, but left following an injury in 1530. Cardinal Grimani helped the artist obtain that dispensation, and Clovio then spent several years with Grimani in Perugia and produced the Stuart de Rothesay Hours (British Museum), among other works. He came to the attention of Alessandro Farnese, the most important patron of the arts in mid-sixteenth-century Rome. For Farnese, Clovio produced his masterpiece, the Farnese Hours (New York, Pierpont Morgan Library), the fruit of twelve years' labor, and the Towneley Lectionary (New York Public Library), a missal for the Sistine Chapel. He traveled with the Farnese entourage and worked also for the Medici at Florence.

Clovio is remembered for his ability to translate the styles of Michelangelo,* Raphael,* and the Mannerists into miniature form. He was highly esteemed by his contemporaries and associated with Vasari, Michelangelo, Vittoria Colonna,* and El Greco,* who painted his portrait (Naples, Capodimonte). Some of Clovio's later drawings were engraved by Cornelius Cort.

Bibliography

C. Robertson, II Gran Cardinale: Alessandro Farnese, Patron ofthe Arts, 1992. W. Smith, ed., The Farnese Hours, facsimile ed., 1976.

John Marciari