Juraj Julije Klovic

Juraj Julije Klovic or Giorgio Giulio Clovio (1498–1578), known worldwide as Giulio Clovio, was a miniaturist painter and by profession a priest.

Klovic was by birth a Croat born in Grižane, near Crikvenica in Kvarner bay. He was said to have learned the elements of design in Dalmatia, and to have studied afterwards with intense diligence at Rome under Giulio Romano, and at Verosia under Girolamo dai Libri. He excelled in historical pieces and portraits, painting as for microscopical examination, and yet contriving to handle his subjects with great force and precision.

He worked in Venice, Florence and elsewhere, with a long active period in Rome where he died. His grave is in the Church of San Pietro in Vincola, the same church that keeps celebrated Michelangelo's Moses. Under Klovic's bust, beside his name, is written the name of his homeland, which he always emphasized: Julio Clovio de Croatia. He was also called Macedo, or Macedone, to connect him with his supposed Macedonian ancestry.

The renowned Giorgio Vasari, the first art critic of the modern world, considered Klovic to be the greatest miniaturist of the time and included him within his famed artists' biographies (second edition, 1568).

El Greco, a celebrated Greek artist from Spain, who painted with crepuscular and mystical atmospheres, painted a portrait of Klovic and enlisted him as one of the four painters whom he himself considered as his teachers—side by side with Michelangelo, Tizian and Raphael. Juraj Julije Klovic was also known as Michelangelo of the miniature. Codexes with his miniatures became famous primarily due to his skilled illustrations. He was curiously persuasive in transferring the entire multilayered look that was present in the famous pictures of the Italian high Renaissance into the miniature format.

The paintings are the excellent portrayal of the events and scenes that we see around us. The painters are the best cameras of the world. They reproduce many different types of pictures. They even draw imaginary pictures that do not exist in this world. We tend to use both thinned oil paints and dense oil paints. Masterpieces can be dyed more than once, but each time it may be different from the existing paintings.h

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