Romanita and Grazia: Giulio Clovio's Pauline Frontispieces for Marino Grimani

When the miniaturist Giulia Clovio reenter the household of his former patron Cardinal Marino Grimani in 1534 he was returning to the sophisticated environment in which he had been trained. [1] Between 1516 when Clovio left his native Croatia at the age of eighteen, and approximately 1523 Clovio had be delighted withed the benefits of the Grimani's support, greatest in quantity likely living with Marino in the Roman residence of Cardinal Domenico Grimani, Marino's uncle and mentor. [2] In the intervening years, 1523 to 1533 Clovio traveled from the royal court at Budapest back to Rome and from there, after the sack of the city in 1527 by dint of imperial troops, to various monasteries of the Canons Regular of St Augustine. [3] Giorgio Vasari's life of Clovio, however, indicates that the artist first flourished in Rome where as a familiare of the Grimani (member of the household) he had the opportunity to suitable at least one member of Raphael's workshop, Giulio Romano, and to application of mind the monuments and the collections of antiquities vital to the education of a young artist. [4] Foremost among these collections was certainly that of Cardinal Domenico, whose be fond of for and acquisition of antique and contemporary art is well documented. [5] According to Vasari, Marino Grimani initiated Clovio's studies by means of having him make pen drawings after antique medals, probably those which Cardinal Domenico later bequeathed to Marino in 1523 [6] Unfortunately, none of Clovio's work from his first years with the Grimani survives, on the other hand the miniatures that Clovio made for Marino during the 1530 bear witness to the artist's skill in disegno and knowledge of one as well as the other antiquity and contemporary Roman art.

Of the works attributable to this next to the first period of Cardinal Marino's patronage, [7] the illuminations in his have a title to Commentarii in Epistolam Pauli ad Romanos now in Sir John Soane's Museum (m 143) have attracted the greatest in quantity scholarly attention (Figs. 1, 2) [8] by dint of contrast, two pendant miniatures in Paris at the Mus[acute{e}]e du Louvre have received little more than passing mention in the literature upon Clovio (Figs. 3, 4). Although described in Francisco de Hollanda's Di[acute{a}]logos em Roma (1548) the Louvre miniatures were solitary published in this century. [9] one as well as the other works have long been associated with the Soane manuscript, whose frontispiece depicts the Conversion of Paul (fol 7v Fig. 1) in bounds of formal characteristics, subject matter, and patronage. The Soane frontispiece and the first Louvre miniature, here entitled The Conversion of the Roman Proconsul Sergius Paulus (Fig. 3) share a source in Raphael's designs for the Sistine Chapel tapestry round of years depicting the Acts of Peter and Paul. [10] The seco nd Louvre miniature, which depicts the Theological Virtues (Fig. 4) is linked to the Soane manuscript by the agency of the presence of Cardinal Marino's coat of arms and imprese at the bottom of the composition, alone slightly different in arrangement from the coat of arms and imprese at the bottom center and top of the title page (fol 8 Fig. 2) of the latter. The sum of two units virtues (Faith and Piety) upon either side of that page's title-bearing plaque also closely bear likeness [i]or[/i] resemblance to the Theological Virtues (Faith, confidence and Charity) in the Paris miniature. These similarities have l a scarcely any scholars to suggest that the Soane manuscript and the sum of two units Louvre miniatures are related in origin, on the contrary a more definitive connection linking all three works has remained elusive. [11]

I shall argue that this connection is to be set in the text of Marino's commentary itself, extant in sum of two units forms: the Soane manuscript and a little-known, revised edition published in 1542 by means of the Aldine Press. [12] upon the basis of a shut up examination of both of these body s I propose more specifically that the Louvre miniatures, like The Conversion of Paul in the Soane codex were intended to function as frontispieces for a manuscript transcript of Marino's commentary in its next to the first form, which survives only in the printed work of 1542. Finally, I shall demonstrate that Clovio designed these sum of two units frontispieces to parallel certain lock opener arguments in the cardinal's body namely, the danger of false apostles and the place of charity in justification.

granting the doctrine of justification was central to the polemics between Martin Luther and the Roman house of worship Rome's position on the matter was not strictly defined until the appoint issued at the Council of Trent in 1547 and, thus, partly took shape in reaction to Luther's hold doctrine of justification by faith alone. In producing a true copy that addressed this polemic and in maintaining the importance of charity (including useful works), Cardinal Marino was establishing himself as an active upholder of Roman religious orthodoxy and as an opposite of false apostles like Luther. Marino had already acted in this capacity as the patriarch of Aquileia in the 1520 carefully monitoring doctrinal instruction in his Friulian dioceses. [13] Clovio's frontispiece for the Soane manuscript and the sum of two units Louvre miniatures reflect Cardinal Marino's interest in promulgating the authority of the Roman house of worship and its traditions; they are distinctly Roman in turn of expression and subject matter, reflecting the artistic tastes, the political interests, and the theological bear upons of the cardinal at the court of Paul III.