Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/455

Rh  of his works; this is Rocco Guerrini, of Marradi, now in France, where, as I am told, he is proving himself a very good architect, more especially as regards fortifications, having effected many creditable and useful works during these last wars.

Here, then, and at this last moment, that I may not defraud any one of the credit due to his abilities, I have mentioned certain sculptors and architects now living, of whom I have not had a convenient opportunity for speaking elsewhere.

There never has been, and for many ages there probably never will be, a more admirable and more extraordinary miniaturist, I mean a painter of minute objects, than Don Giulio Clovio, who has far surpassed all that have hitherto distinguished themselves in that manner.

He was born in Sclavonia, or Croatia, at a town called Grisone, in the Diocese of Madrucci; his family was of Macedonian origin, and he was baptized Giorgio Giulio. From his childhood he was kept to the study of letters; but he took to design by instinct, and, desirous of improvement, he came to Italy when he had attained his eighteenth year, attaching himself to the service of Marino Cardinal Grimani; labouring for three years in the studies of design, with so much zeal, that his progress went much beyond what had previously been expected from him. Proof of this may be seen in certain designs for medals, and their reverses, which he executed for the above-named Prelate at that time; they are drawn with the pen with infinitely minute detail, and are finished with an extraordinary, nay, almost inconceivable, care and patience.

Perceiving, therefore, that he was more powerfully aided by Nature for minute works than for larger ones, Giulio determined, and very wisely, to become a miniaturist, a decision to which he was advised by many friends, who remarked that his works in that manner were graceful and