JUSTUS of GHENT, Joos van Wassenhove, called. — Painter, born between 1435 and 1440 either in Antwerp or Ghent; in 1460 he was admitted to the Guild of St Luke in Antwerp, and on 6 October 1464 to the painters’ corporation in Ghent; other documents confirm his presence in Ghent in 1464 and 1468. Before 1474 Joos departed for Rome, as is shown by a document in the parish archive of St Michael’s, Ghent.
The name of G. first appears in Urbino in a document dated 12 February 1473. The last notice of him is from 25 October 1475: payments for the Communion of the Apostles in the ducal palace of Urbino. The evident points of contact between this work and the images of the Fathers of the Church and illustrious personages, as well as the allegorical figures of the liberal arts that decorated the duke’s study in the Palazzo di Urbino (now partly in Urbino, partly in the Louvre, the National Gallery in London, and the Kaiser Friedrich Museum in Berlin), confirm the attribution of these works to G., even though here one notes greater sweetness and modulation than in the Communion. Moreover, Vespasiano da Bisticci, librarian to Duke Federico, speaks, with regard to the decoration of the study, of a Flemish painter expressly summoned to Urbino. Probably, however, in those paintings there was the collaboration of another artist who might be the Castilian Pedro Berruguete, a collaboration evident above all in the panels in the Berlin Museum. In any case, Giusto belongs to the ranks of northern masters who, descending into Italy during the 15th century, despite the diversity of their expressive language, contributed to the definition of certain particular aspects of our Renaissance by influencing the artists of the milieu in which they found themselves working.
GIUSE of Lyon, saint. — He is commemorated several times in the *Martyrologium Hieronymianum*, either alone or with Viator; yet it seems that his true *dies natalis* is 14 October. There exists a *Life* written towards the end of the 5th century, well-informed and generally reliable, according to which Giuse was first deacon of Vienne, then bishop of Lyon. As such he took part in the Council of Valence in 374 and that of Aquileia in 381. He governed his diocese with great zeal, also distinguishing himself in the exercise of virtue. On his return from Aquileia he resigned the episcopate and retired to Egypt, living unknown among the solitaries in penance and prayer. After his death his body was transferred to Lyon and buried in the church of the Holy Maccabees, which soon took his name; already in the 5th century his tomb was much frequented and venerated.
GIUSE of Menabuoi. — Florentine painter, also called “da Padova” because he worked chiefly in that city, where he is documented from 1367 and where he died c. 1391.
Recent criticism, besides clarifying the problem of G.’s training—he was educated among the post-Giottesque painters of the Maso-Stefano-Giottino group—has attributed to him some frescoes executed in Lombardy at the abbey of the Humiliati in Viboldone, dating shortly after his first certain work, the *Madonna* of 1363 in the Schiff collection in Rome. The Paduan-period paintings include: a triptych of 1367 (now in London, National Gallery), the frescoes in the Chapel of St Augustine at the Eremitani (1370), the grand cycle of frescoes completed in 1376 covering the entire Baptistery of the Duomo, and the decoration of the chapel of the Blessed Luca Belludi at the Santo, finished in 1382. Among the few other secure works is a small altarpiece recently rediscovered in the abbey of Montecassino.
A very personal artist, G. is distinguished by a style that unites the Romanesque gravity of the figures with a colour rendered in subtle and refined gradations, to which are not foreign influences from contemporary Venetian painting. In his later works the influence of the frescoes by Avanzo is also perceptible. — See pl. LXII.
GIUSE of Tiberias. — Jewish patriot and historian of the 1st century AD. Of G.’s life only what his adversary Flavius Josephus reports in his autobiography is known. During the revolt against the Romans in AD 66-70 G. played an important part in the defence of his native city. With the advance of the Romans, G. took refuge in Agrippa II (v.).
Condemned to death by Vespasian, he was punished only with long imprisonment by Agrippa (Flav. Josephus, *Vita*, §§ 343, 410). He then lived at the court of Agrippa, who was often obliged to punish him despite the protection of Berenice (ibid., §§ 335, 356). G. lived until about AD 100, since his *Chronicle* extended to the death of Agrippa II (d. AD 100 according to G. of T. cited by Photius, but probably already dead in AD 93-94).
G.’s works, all lost, were: a *History of the Jewish War*, against which Flavius Josephus (v.) wrote his apologetic *Vita*; a *Chronicle* of the Jewish kings from Moses to Agrippa II; perhaps some short commentaries on the Bible, of which only St Jerome speaks (*De viris illustribus*, 14).