CLOVIO, Giulio. – Miniaturist, born at Grizane in Croatia, died in Rome on 5 January 1578. His name in his native language was Jural (i.e., Giorgio) Glovichsich. In 1516 he was in Venice in the service of the Grimani family, then went to Rome where he met Giulio Romano. In 1524 he was in Hungary working for King Louis II. In 1527 he was again in Rome and during the Sack he was taken prisoner by the Spaniards. Having escaped, he fled to Mantua where he became a canon regular at the convent of S. Rufina, taking the name Giulio. But his former protector, Cardinal Marino Grimani, obtained (1531) that he be released from his vows and sent to work for him in Perugia. He then went to Rome at the court of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, leaving only for important commissions such as those executed in 1551 for Cosimo de’ Medici in Florence.
The works of C. are very numerous, as recorded by Vasari and those attributed to him; among these may be mentioned, besides a Deposition and a self-portrait in the Pitti Gallery in Florence, several manuscripts in the Vatican Library including the missals nos. 3805 and 3807; the Canon Missae in the archiepiscopal archive of Ravenna; the Silius Italicus in the Marciana Library of Venice; the Commentaries on the Epistle of St Paul in the Suane Museum and other manuscripts in the British Museum in London; the Psalter of Paul III in Paris, etc.
The fame of G. C. as an exceptional artist was immense in his own time, and his technical and draughtsmanship skills still appear truly extraordinary. Yet the judgment passed on him today is confined to the interest that may be aroused by one who sought to translate into patient minute detail a somewhat Flemish taste for the harmonious forms of Raphael or the power of Michelangelo; and our admiration is therefore limited to his, at times miraculous, craftsmanship.