DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.32044#0170
FROM AN ILLUMINATED DRAWING
OF THE CRUCIFIXION.
BY GIULIO CLOVIO.
UR plate is taken from a beautiful specimen of
the Illuminator’s art, now the property of Mr.
J. B. White of Brownlow St. Holborn, who
purchased it from Mr. Thomas Wilson of
Grays’ Inn, the eminent solicitor, so well known
as a colledtor of works of art, and as the author
of several anonymous publications of great value
to connoiseurs; particularly one under the title of
“ A Descriptive Catalogue ofthe Prints of Rem-
brandt, by an Amateur.” Mr. Wilson bought it at a sale in 1825, by the
late Mr. Christie, of “ a highly valuable and extremely curious colledtion
of illuminated miniature paintings, of the greatest beauty and exquisite
finiihing, taken from the choral books of the papal Chapel in the Vati-
can, during the French Revolution ; and subsequently colledted and
brought to this country by the Abbate Celotti.”
How far the fingers of the learned Abbate were morally tainted by the
first misappropriation of these beautiful drawings, we have no means of
determining; but as he held an office in the Vatican prior to the Revo-
lution, he has laboured under the suspicion of taking advantage of the
confusion arising from that event, to cull from that celebrated library
some of its choicest gems, which would scarcely have been seledted with
so much judgment by uncivilized soldiers, even if they had not entirely
escaped their notice.
Mr. Christie’s Catalogue (with some very interesting prefatory re-
marks) was prepared by the late Wm. Young Ottley, Esq., the keeper
of the prints in the Britiih Museum, whose extensive acquaintance with
early art, particularly of the Italian school, gives the highest value to
his opinions.
Mr. Ottley states that this drawing, with three others sold at the same
time, were made for Gregory XIII. (who was made Pope in 1 572, and
died in 1593) by the celebrated Giulio Clovio, and, he had no doubt,
they had appertained to the book mentioned by Baglione in 1642, in his
life of that eminent artist, as being then preserved in the Sacristy of the
Pontifical Chapel.
OF THE CRUCIFIXION.
BY GIULIO CLOVIO.
UR plate is taken from a beautiful specimen of
the Illuminator’s art, now the property of Mr.
J. B. White of Brownlow St. Holborn, who
purchased it from Mr. Thomas Wilson of
Grays’ Inn, the eminent solicitor, so well known
as a colledtor of works of art, and as the author
of several anonymous publications of great value
to connoiseurs; particularly one under the title of
“ A Descriptive Catalogue ofthe Prints of Rem-
brandt, by an Amateur.” Mr. Wilson bought it at a sale in 1825, by the
late Mr. Christie, of “ a highly valuable and extremely curious colledtion
of illuminated miniature paintings, of the greatest beauty and exquisite
finiihing, taken from the choral books of the papal Chapel in the Vati-
can, during the French Revolution ; and subsequently colledted and
brought to this country by the Abbate Celotti.”
How far the fingers of the learned Abbate were morally tainted by the
first misappropriation of these beautiful drawings, we have no means of
determining; but as he held an office in the Vatican prior to the Revo-
lution, he has laboured under the suspicion of taking advantage of the
confusion arising from that event, to cull from that celebrated library
some of its choicest gems, which would scarcely have been seledted with
so much judgment by uncivilized soldiers, even if they had not entirely
escaped their notice.
Mr. Christie’s Catalogue (with some very interesting prefatory re-
marks) was prepared by the late Wm. Young Ottley, Esq., the keeper
of the prints in the Britiih Museum, whose extensive acquaintance with
early art, particularly of the Italian school, gives the highest value to
his opinions.
Mr. Ottley states that this drawing, with three others sold at the same
time, were made for Gregory XIII. (who was made Pope in 1 572, and
died in 1593) by the celebrated Giulio Clovio, and, he had no doubt,
they had appertained to the book mentioned by Baglione in 1642, in his
life of that eminent artist, as being then preserved in the Sacristy of the
Pontifical Chapel.