Parmigianino

The Italian painter Parmigianino (1503-1540) was a pioneer of the mannerist style, within which his work shows an essentially decorative emphasis and accomplished smoothness.

The real name of Parmigianino a nickname meaning "little man from Parma, " was Francesco Mazzola. He was born on Jan. 11, 1503, in Parma. After his father, a painter, died in 1505, Parmigianino was brought up by two painter uncles. His own first works show an easy assimilation of the most sophisticated local styles, first Francesco Francia's and then Correggio's.

At the age of 19 Parmigianino was commissioned to execute frescoes for the Parma Cathedral; he painted a series of saints that rival Correggio's in their sinuous grace and gentle shadows. Soon thereafter Parmigianino extended these qualities into a personal idiom in the frescoes of the story of Diana and Acteon for a castle at Fontanellato; the figures are built up by a sketchy, pasty brushstroke that suggests an environment of fresh air but also confirms the elegant artificiality basic to mannerism, the frank embrace of the fact that painting differs in its essentials from nature.

Visually, mannerism is the intentional distortion of the proportions of the human figure and of spatial relationships. Good art for the early Renaissance was the successful imitation of nature, and this goal seemed to be achieved by High Renaissance artists. Their successors, such as Correggio, were thus able to learn it as apprentices and concern themselves rather with harmonious variations on ideal natural beauty. By the same token, the next generation could easily learn variants on ideal beauty which were already abstracted from their origins in nature and so could concern themselves with artifice and stylized distortion, as Parmigianino did.

In 1524 Parmigianino went to Rome, taking as a sample work his Self-portrait in a Convex Mirror, a distortion of his own appearance meant to amuse and attract praise for its technical virtuosity. In Rome he developed an elegant style of painting Madonnas, with a harder and smoother surface.

Parmigianino fled the sack of Rome in 1527 and went to Bologna. In his Allegorical Portrait of Charles V (1529-1530), executed in Bologna, where Charles V was crowned in 1530, he produced a pioneer formulation of the absolutist state portrait. Beginning in 1531, back in Parma, Parmigianino painted his most classic statements: the almost perversely erotic Cupid Sharpening His Bow, with Cupid seen from the rear but turning with a smile, and the Madonna of the Long Neck (1534), both paintings unified by a crisp twining line. His great church commission for S. Maria della Steccata in Parma, begun (1531) with six decorative female figures, was neglected when he developed a passion for alchemy. Threatened with a lawsuit for breach of contract in 1539, he fled to Casalmaggiore, where he died on Aug. 24, 1540.

Parmigianino was an accomplished draftsman. He was also the first Italian painter to be an etcher.

Further Reading

Sydney J. Freedberg, Parmigianino: His Works in Painting (1950), is a sound although needlessly elaborate visual analysis. A. E. Popham, The Drawings of Parmigianino (1953), contains an excellent summary text. □

Parmigianino ( Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola) (b Parma, 11 Jan. 1503; d Casalmaggiore, nr. Parma, 24 Aug. 1540). Italian Mannerist painter, draughtsman, and printmaker; his nickname (the little Parmesan) comes from his native city, which was also his main place of work. He was precociously gifted, and as early as 1522–3 he painted highly accomplished frescos in two chapels in S. Giovanni Evangelista, Parma; they show his admiration for Correggio, who was working in the same church at this time. The originality and sophistication he displayed from the beginning, particularly his love of unusual spatial effects, is most memorably seen in his celebrated Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror (1524, KH Mus., Vienna), in which Vasari said he looks ‘so beautiful that he seemed an angel rather than a man’.

In 1524 Parmigianino moved to Rome, possibly via Florence, and his work became both grander and more graceful under the influence of Raphael and Michelangelo. The Vision of St Jerome (1526–7, NG, London) is his most important work of this time, showing the disturbing emotional intensity he created with his elongated forms, disjointed sense of space, chill lighting, and lascivious atmosphere. Parmigianino left Rome after it was sacked by German troops in 1527 and moved to Bologna. In 1530 he returned to Parma and contracted to paint frescos in S. Maria della Steccata. He failed to complete the work, however, and in 1539 was imprisoned for breach of contract. Vasari says he neglected the work because he was infatuated with alchemy—‘he allowed his beard to grow long and disordered…he neglected himself and grew melancholy and eccentric’. His later paintings show no falling off in his powers, however, and his work reaches its apotheosis in his celebrated Madonna of the Long Neck (c.1535, Uffizi, Florence). The forms of the figures are extraordinarily elongated and tapering and the painting has a refinement and grace that place it among the archetypal works of Mannerism.

Parmigianino's range extended beyond religious works. He painted a highly erotic Cupid Carving his Bow (1535, KH Mus., Vienna), and was one of the subtlest portraitists of his age (two superb examples are in the Museo di Capodimonte, Naples). The landscape backgrounds to his religious works have a mysterious and visionary quality that influenced Niccolò dell' Abate and through him French art (see Fontainebleau). Parmigianino, whose draughtsmanship was exquisite, also made designs for engravings and chiaroscuro woodcuts and seems to have been the first Italian artist to produce original etchings from his own designs.

Parmigianino ( Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola) (1503–40). Italian Mannerist painter, draughtsman, and printmaker, born in Parma, from which he takes his nickname. He was precociously gifted, and as early as 1522–3 he painted highly accomplished frescos in two chapels in S. Giovanni Evangelista, Parma; they show his admiration for Correggio, who was working in the same church at this time. The originality and sophistication he displayed from the beginning, particularly his love of unusual spatial effects, is most memorably seen in his celebrated Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror (1524, KH Mus., Vienna), in which Vasari said he looks ‘so beautiful that he seemed an angel rather than a man’. In 1524 Parmigianino moved to Rome, possibly via Florence, and his work became both grander and more graceful under the influence of Raphael and Michelangelo. The Vision of St Jerome (1526–7, NG, London) is his most important work of this time, showing the disturbing emotional intensity he created with his elongated forms, disjointed sense of space, chill lighting, and lascivious atmosphere. Parmigianino left Rome after it was sacked by German troops in 1527 and moved to Bologna. In 1530 he returned to Parma and contracted to paint frescos in S. Maria della Steccata. He failed to complete the work, however, and in 1539 was imprisoned for breach of contract. Vasari says he neglected the work because he was infatuated with alchemy—‘he allowed his beard to grow long and disordered … he neglected himself and grew melancholy and eccentric’. His later paintings show no falling off in his powers, however, and his work reaches its apotheosis in his celebrated Madonna of the Long Neck (c.1535, Uffizi, Florence). The forms of the figures are extraordinarily elongated and tapering and the painting has a refinement and grace that place it among the archetypal works of Mannerism. Parmigianino's range extended beyond religious works. He painted a highly erotic Cupid Carving his Bow (1535, KH Mus., Vienna), and was one of the subtlest portraitists of his age (two superb examples are in the Mus. di Capodimonte, Naples). The landscape backgrounds to his religious works have a mysterious and visionary quality that influenced Niccolò dell' Abate and through him French art (see Fontainebleau, School of). Parmigianino, whose draughtsmanship was exquisite, also made designs for engravings and chiaroscuro woodcuts and seems to have been the first Italian artist to produce original etchings from his own designs.

Parmigianino or Parmigiano , 1503-40, Italian painter and etcher, one of the most sensitive mannerist artists (see mannerism ) and one of the period's finest draftsmen. His real name was Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola. The name Parmigianino is derived from his birthplace, Parma. His early paintings show the pervasive influence of Correggio . These include The Marriage of St. Catherine (Parma Gall.) and the frescoes in San Giovanni Evangelista, where both artists painted. Parmigianino was in Rome for a few years, but had to flee during the sack of the city in 1527. He went to Bologna, where he painted the altarpiece Madonna and Child with St. Margaret and Other Saints. One of his most curious works is a painting of himself seen in the distorted reflection of a convex mirror (Vienna). In 1531 he returned to Parma and spent the last years of his life painting frescoes in Santa Maria della Steccata. His art is noted for its remarkable grace and sensuality and for its elongated figures. Among his important works are the Vision of St. Jerome (National Gall., London); Madonna dal Collo Lungo (Uffizi, Florence); and the Legend of Diane and Acteon (Rocca di Fontanellato, near Parma). Parmigianino was one of the first artists to use the technique of etching, and through this medium his style became influential in Italy and N Europe.

Bibliography: See A. E. Popham, Catalogue of the Drawings of Parmigianino (3 vol., 1971); study by S. Freedberg (1950, repr. 1971); D. Franklin and D. Ekserdjian, The Art of Parmigianino (2004).