The Museo del Prado exhibits an artwork by Giulio Clovio donated by the American Friends of the Prado Museum

This work, the Risen Christ, evokes a sculpture by Michelangelo and was intended for private devotion.  American Friends has recently donated it to the Museo del Prado, thanks to the generosity of its patron Pilar Conde Gutiérrez del Álamo.

During the next month, the first work by the artist Giulio Clovio in the collections of the Prado Museum, the Risen Christ, is on view in room 49 of the Villanueva building. Until this incorporation, only one work by the artist was conserved in Spain, the Holy Family with Saint Isabel and Saint John in the Lázaro Galdiano Museum in Madrid.

The Risen Christ was possibly commissioned by Cardinal Alessandro Farnese to Giulio Clovio who completed it around 1550. For its execution, the artist was inspired by a sculpture by Michelangelo, of the same title, in Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome.

Known for his friendship with the much younger El Greco, whom Clovio introduced to Farnese’s circle when El Greco arrived in Rome, Clovio is considered the greatest miniaturist and illuminator of the Renaissance, creating a new technique which  takes advantage of the texture and tones of the support – paper, parchment or vellum – to apply the color through small dots that, united, appear “like a snowfall that falls on the painting” as described by his contemporary, Francisco de Holanda. He also shows great innovation by moving away from the medieval tradition of miniatures, conceiving his illustrations as independent, small-format paintings and thus extending the life of a technique that, since the invention of engraving, seemed destined to disappear.

Philip II owned several illuminations by Clovio, who was already admired in Spain from the time of Charles V, both by the monarchs themselves and members of their court. After the War of Independence, all of these ended up in French collections.

The Risen Christ remained in a private collection in Spain until shortly before being acquired by Pilar Conde Gutiérrez del Álamo, who generously donated it to the American Friends of the Prado Museum in 2019. It has remained in deposit at the Museum from that moment until late last year when its entry into its collections became effective thanks to the donation from the American organization. Its director, Christina Simmons, comments that “American Friends’ mission is to foster patronage in favor of the Prado Museum. We are enormously grateful to Pilar Conde for her generosity in donating this delicate work by Clovio and we are excited to have helped incorporate this piece into the Prado collections.”

Miguel Falomir, Director of the Prado Museum – who considers this work by Giulio Clovio to be a jewel of the Renaissance, due to its quality and exceptionality –, expresses his gratitude to American Friends of the Prado Museum and its previous owner, Pilar Conde, for their generosity and for contributing to the visibility of this work historically linked to Spain, by one of the great illuminators of the 16th century. Likewise, until this donation, there was only one work conserved in Spain by this artist, The Holy Family with Saint Isabel and Saint John in the Lázaro Galdiano Museum in Madrid.”

Pilar Conde comments that it is a great satisfaction to have contributed to expanding the Museum’s collections with this piece, which up until now did not have a work by Clovio. In Conde’s words, “I hope that when the public sees the work they will enjoy the Clovio as much as I have.”