| Added by |
 Alain Martineau
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| General Description : | Serie: 312, Type: P, Stamps in serie: 1 On the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the birth of Juraj Julije Klović, the Croatian Post and Telecommunications and the Vatican Post are issuing a common stamp with the motive of the central part of the miniature "Adoration of the Shepherds" from the breviary "Officium Virginis", the work of art of J. J. Klović that is kept in the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York. "Michelangelo of miniature", as Juraj Julije Klović (born in Grižane, 1498, died in Rome, 1578) was often called in admiration by his contemporaries, experienced a fate similar to the one that happened to this artist's genre in painting, the genre to which the artist has given a precious contribution within the frame of European and world painting. Gutenberg's invention of the printing press soon ousted the miniature as a widely spread and appreciated artistic genre, and Klović, the "last miniaturist" was assigned the place at the margin of the history of art for several centuries to follow. There is little known about Klović's youth and education. He was born in the village of Grižane in 1498, and in 1516 he left his native village for Venice, to enter the service of Cardinal Domenico, and later the one of Marino Grimani. After a sojourn in Rome, where he met the painter Giulio Romano, somewhere around the year 1523 he left for Hungary, where he worked at the court of King Ludovic II. As early as 1526 he fled from the battlefield of Mohacs and returned to Rome where he entered the service of Cardinal Lorenzo Campeggio. In 1527, after the looting of Rome that he barely survived, hedecided to leave for Mantua, where he took orders as the sign of his gratitude for the Lord's mercy. He lived in the cloister of Candiana near Padua and made friends with the miniaturist from Verona, Girolamo dei Libri. Throughout his life Klović tried to find sanctuary in cloisters, and yet he found it with the greatest Maecenas of his time. The art of miniature, that was often considered as "a translation of painting" in itself contains limitations, and is also subject to conditions of spiritual level and artistic taste of the milieu. There were no models necessary for Klović's inventive imagination, but such demands were put upon him by the court. The assimilation of models that he practiced is considerable, but not complete and only in some works did he reach peak solutions. An example of this is the breviary Officium Virginis, completed in Rome in 1546 for the Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, and today this breviary is kept in The Pierpont Morgan Library in New York. It took Klović nine years to paint this masterpiece. The breviary consists of 114 sheets (228 pages) containing thirty miniatures with scenes from the Old and New Testament. Two of the miniatures have liturgical subject, most of the pages have been painted on the margins. "The Adoration of the Shepherds" is among the finest miniatures of this breviary. The meeting of the shepherds with the newly-born Christ in the manger has been turned into a luxuriant, almost courtly scene, with the figures of Mary and the Child dominating the scene. The central figures are surrounded by the manneristically strong figures of the shepherds carrying staves and a lamb, and a shepherdess with a basket upon her head, while in the beckground individual parts of the temple can be made out. An imaginary light shines from the basket with the newborn baby, Mary's light blue dress, from the angel who announces Christ's birth to the shepherd and the lamb in another shepherd's arms. By a spiral transfer of the source of light from one part of the painting to the other, a dynamic composition, full of tenseness and expectation has been created. This freedom, this bizzare summing up of elements, the light and could colour, all these features make Klović one of the best artists who have continued in the tradition of the la grande maniera in miniature. The stamp was printed in sheet of 20 pieces each. The Croatian Post and Telecommunications put on sale First Day Cover (FDC) and First Day Sheet. |
| Face value | 1,50 Kuna |
| Catalog code (Michel) | HR 490 |
| Catalog code (Scott) | HR 381 |
| Catalog code | Yvert et Tellier HR 460 Stanley Gibbons HR 571 AFA number HR 570 Croatian post Inc. HR 312 |
| Series | Christmas |
| Stamp colour | multicolor |
| Stamp use | Commemorative stamp |
| Print run | 1,500,000 |
| Issue date | 21/11/1998 |
| Designer | Danijel Popović |
| Paper type | white 102g, gummed |
| Print technique | Multicoloured Offsetprint |
| Printed by | Joh. Enschede Stamps, Security Printers B. V. Haarlem, the Netherlands |
| Perforation | 14, comb |
| Height | 40.50 mm |
| Width | 29.00 mm |
| Catalog prices | Unused stamp $0.65 |
