ATTRIBUTED TO GIULIO CLOVIO | A SAINT

Brice Hereford, by 1835;

with Edwin Boucher, Trogen, by 1980

This arresting miniature, depicting a saint dressed in vibrant green and pink garments, set against a gold background, embodies the Byzantine representation of saintly icon figures in its frontal positioning and the proximity of the bust to the picture plane. However, the way in which the features are rendered, the intensity of the gaze and the delicate handling of the hair and beard, imbue this portrait with a striking realism, suggesting that it may have been a study done from life. 

Two very similarly composed works, only known through engravings by Philippe Thomassin after drawings by Giulio Clovio, representing the busts of Jesus and of Mary, are very comparable in their handling and compositional approach to the present portrait miniature.¹

See note to lot 1 for more information on Dr. Erika Pohl-Ströher (1919-2016).

1. Prints after Giulio Clovio, exhib. cat., Zagreb, Palace of the Croatian Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1998, nos. 30-31