The Four Evangelists, within a Border of Flowers, Birds, and Insects

Prints and Drawings

1572

Circle of Giulio Clovio
Croatian, active Italy, 1498–1578

His contemporaries boasted that the illuminator Giorgio Giulio Clovio could paint the entire ’ Sistine Ceiling on a single page. This Michelangelesque miniature is actually a collage, and the coat of arms of Pope Gregory XIII suggests that it belonged to a manuscript housed in the Sistine Chapel. When Napoleon’s troops raided Rome in the late 18th century, sixty manuscripts were stolen from the pontifical chapel; many of these are known to have been cut up and reassembled.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: Giorgio Giulio Clovio
Title: The Four Evangelists, within a Border of Flowers, Birds, and Insects
Place: Italy (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1572
Medium: Tempera and gold paint on vellum, in paper montage with pen and brown ink and touches of watercolor
Inscriptions: Inscribed verso on mount, in graphite: "Done for Pope Gregory the XIIIth / (Buoncampagna) / by / Don Giulio Clovio about 1572 or 1573 / called by Zani the Roscius by / others the Raffaelle of Miniature / see Zani (Roscoe) Vol. III. P. 81 ff. & IV. 2A / Clovio was the pupil of Girolamo de Libro & Giulio Romano. / Gregory was created 1572 and died 1583 / Clovio was born 1498 and died 1578. / aged 80. This is a companion to Nos. 87 & 89 / which wee done for a volume mentioned / by Baglione in his life of Clovio / 1642 as then preserved in teh Sacristy / of the Pontifical Chapel. / See also Bottari."
Dimensions: Overall: 36.7 × 25 cm (14 1/2 × 9 7/8 in.); Individual miniatures; Matthew: 7.8 × 7.5 cm (3 1/8 × 3 in.); Mark: 7.7 × 7.5 cm (3 1/16 × 3 in.); Luke: 7.8 × 7.8 cm (3 1/8 × 3 1/8 in.); John: 7.8 × 7.7 cm (3 1/8 × 3 1/16 in.); Border: 34.3 × 24.5 cm (13 9/16 × 9 11/16 in.)
Credit Line: Bequest of Katherine R. Loewenthal
Reference Number: 1982.438
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/97442/manifest.json

T. Julien Brown, “Some Manuscript Fragments Illuminated for Pope Gregory XII,” British Museum Quarterly 23 (1960), pp. 3 and 5, no. 3.
The Art Institute of Chicago Annual Report Supplement (1982-1983), p. 19 (ill.).
William Voelkle and Gregory Clark, Italian Manuscript Painting, 1300-1500 (New York, 1984-1985), under no. 60.
Terisio Pignatti and Giandomenico Romanelli, Drawings from Venice: Masterworks from the Correr, Venice (New York, 1985), no. 60.
Sandra Hindman and Michael Heinlen, “A Connoisseur’s Montage: The Four Evangelists Attributed to Giulio Clovio,” The Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 17 (1991), pp. 154-178, 181-182 (ill.).
Sandra Hindman, “Illuminations, Gouaches, Drawings from the 13th to the 18th Centuries (Paris, 1996), p. 38.
Suzanne Folds McCullagh and Laura M. Giles, Italian Drawings before 1600 in The Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Collection (Chicago, 1997), pp. 395-96, no. 120 (ill.).

The Art Institute of Chicago, “Great Drawings from The Art Institute of Chicago: The Harold Joachim Years 1958-1983,” July 24-September 30, 1985, pp. 26-27, cat. 2 (ill.), cat. by Martha Tedeschi.
The Art Institute of Chicago, “Drawings Rediscovered: Italian Drawings before 1600 in The Art Institute of Chicago,” April 10-July 22, 1997.
The Art Institute of Chicago, “The Broad Spectrum: Color on Paper, Past and Present,” September 12–October 31, 1999, hors. cat.

Pope Gregory XIII (died 1583) and all succeeding popes, Sistine Chapel, Rome, c. 1572-1798 [Folds McCullagh and Giles 1997]; probably stolen from Sistine Chapel by Napoleon’s troops, 1798 [Folds McCullagh and Giles 1997]. Abate Luigi Celotti (died 1846?), Venice; sold, Christie’s, London, May 26, 1825, Celotti sale, lot 86, to Molteno [Folds McCullagh and Giles 1997]. William Young Ottley; sold, Sotheby’s, London, May 11-12, 1838, Ottley sale, lot 242, to Adamson [Folds McCullagh and Giles 1997]. Charles Rubens (died 1935), Highland Park, Ill.; by descent to his daughter, Katherine R. Lowenthal, Winnetka, Ill. [Folds McCullagh and Giles 1997]; bequeathed to the Art Institute, 1982.

McCullagh & Giles 120

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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The Four Evangelists, within a Border of Flowers, Birds, and Insects

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

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