Portrait of Giulio Clovio

An older man turns toward us and lays his hand on a small, precious book. He is Giulio Clovio, the miniaturist who opened the doors of Rome to a young painter from Crete.

The story behind the painting

El Greco moved to Rome in 1570, and the miniaturist Giulio Clovio helped him settle there. Through Clovio's recommendation he was received as a guest at the Palazzo Farnese, the cultural hub of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, and Clovio described him as a rare talent in painting. Around 1571, El Greco painted this portrait of his supporter. It was commissioned by Cardinal Farnese and became part of the Farnese collection. In 1734 Charles of Bourbon inherited it and moved it to Naples, where it now hangs in the Museo di Capodimonte. It is the earliest surviving portrait by El Greco.

What to look for

Clovio is shown holding his own masterpiece, the Farnese Hours, an illuminated prayer book. By placing the book in his hands, El Greco presents the sitter through the work that made his name, so the portrait is also a tribute to his art. Behind him, a window opens onto a landscape under a stormy sky, a glimpse of the outside world beyond the quiet interior. Wikidata gives the size as 56 by 86 cm, while El Greco's Wikipedia article gives 58 by 86 cm and describes it as oil on canvas. Either way, it is an intimate image of one artist seen by another.

Meaning and intent

Giulio Clovio, born in 1498 in Croatia as Julije Klović, was a celebrated miniaturist; Giorgio Vasari called him the Michelangelo of the miniature. To paint him holding the Farnese Hours was to honour a master of tiny, meticulous images. For El Greco, it was also an act of gratitude toward the man who had helped him in a new city. One anecdote records that Clovio once visited El Greco on a summer day and found him sitting in a darkened room, because he found darkness more conducive to thought than daylight. The portrait captures their friendship in paint.

Legacy

El Greco's Wikipedia article notes that this work shows his emerging skill as a portraitist, and that his Roman works were strongly marked by his Venetian training. Painted soon after he arrived, the picture stands at the very beginning of a long career that would later flourish in Spain. Its path through the Farnese collection to the Bourbons and on to Naples also mirrors the story of many great Italian collections. Today, at Capodimonte, visitors can meet the two artists at once: the miniaturist with his book, and the young painter who chose to remember him this way.