Parmigianino

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Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola (11 January 1503- 24 August 1540), also known as Francesco Mazzola or more commonly as Parmigianino, was a prominent Mannerist painter active in Florence, Rome, Bologna, and his native city of Parma.

Early Years

Parmigianino was born the eighth child of Filippo Mazzola and Maria di ser Guglielmo. His father died of the plague two years after this son's birth, and the children were raised by their uncles, Michele and Pier Ilario, who according to Vasari were modestly talented artists. In 1515, his uncle received a commission from Nicolo Zangrandi for the decoration of a chapel in San Giovanni Evangelista; a work later completed by a young Parmigianino. By the age of eighteen, he had already completed an Marriage of Catherine altarpiece for Santa Maria at Bardi. In 1521, Parmigianino was sent to Viadana (along with painter Girolamo Bedoli who was to marry his cousin) to escape the wars between French, Imperial, and papal armies. In Viadana, he painted two panels in tempera, depicting Saint Francis for the church of the Frati de' Zoccoli, and the Mystical Marriage of Saint Catherine for San Pietro. He also worked in San Giovanni and met Correggio who was at work in the fresco decorations of the cupola.

Mature Years

Parmigianino received a major commission in 1522 to decorate the left transept arm of San Giovanni cathedral; however, he never completed the work. In 1523-1524, Parmigianino frescoed 14 lunnettes depicting episodes from Ovid’s Metamorphosis of “Diane and Acteon” for the ceiling of a room in Duke Galeazzo Sanvitale's Rocca Sanvitale in Fontanellato, some 20 miles from Parma. Also in this period, he met Girolamo Mazzola Bedoli, a fellow apprentice in the shop of Parmigianino's uncles, and who had married Parmigianino's cousin.

In 1524, he travels to Rome with five small paintings including the Circumcision of Christand his Self-portrait in a Convex Mirror, seeking patronage of the Medici pope, Clement VII. Vasari records that in Rome, Parmigianino was 'celebrated as a Raphael reborn'. In January 1526, Parmigianino and his uncle, Pier Ilario, agree with Maria Bufalina from Citta di Castello, to decorate the church of San Salvatore in Lauro with a painting Vision of Saint Jerome. Like many other artists, within a year the Sack of Rome caused Parmigianino to flee.

Bolognese period and Return to Parma

He came to Bologna first, then by 1530 he returned to Parma. In 1531, Parmigianino received a commission for two altarpieces, depicting Saint Joseph, and Saint John the Baptist, from the unfinished church of Santa Maria della Steccata. The brotherhood overseeing the church avanced him salary and had promised him the supplies and materials; however, by 1535, the project was unfinnished. In December, he nominated Don Nicola Cassola, a Parman cleric at the Roman Curia, to act as his legal representative. Parmigianino authorised him to collect the 50 gold scudi from Bonifazio Gozzadini for the Madonna with St. John the Baptist and St. Zacharias.

In 1534, it was decided that the Madonna dal Collo Lungo (the Madonna with the Long Neck) would hang in the chapel of the family of Elena Baiardi.

Parmigianino had, naturally, probably expected to succeed Correggio in the favour of the church. However, in April 1538, the administrative offices commissioned Girolamo Bedoli to decorate the apse and choir of the duomo. The work had been initially assigned to Giorgio Gandini del Grano, who died prematurely.

However, it is believed that at this time, he became a devotee of alchemy. Vasari hypothesized that this was due to his fascination with magic. Scholars now agree that Parmigianino's scientific interests may've been due to his obsession with trying to find a new medium for his etchings. As a result of his alchemical researches, he completed little work in the church. He was imprisoned for two months for breach of contract after the Confraternita decided unanimously to ban him from continuing in their church. He was replaced between 1539-1540, by Giulio Romano, who also promptly withdrew from the contract.

Parmigianino died in Casalmaggiore on the 24 August 1540, and is buried in the church of the Frati de' Servi "naked with a cross made of cypress wood on his chest".

Works

Parmigianino also excelled in the production of etchings. His work in this influenced the technology and art of printmaking.

The Madonna with the Long Neck

I can well imagine that some may find [Parmigianino's] Madonna almost offensive because of the affectation and sophistication with which a sacred object is treated. There is nothing in it of the ease and simplicity with which Raphael had treated that ancient theme. The picture is called the 'Madonna with the long neck' because the painter, in his eagerness to make the Holy Virgin look graceful and elegant, has given her a neck like that of a swan. He has stretched and lengthened the proportions of the human body in a strangely capricious way. The hand of the Virgin with its long delicate fingers, the long leg of the angel in the foreground, the lean, haggard prophet with a scroll of parchment - we see them all as through a distorting mirror. And yet there can be no doubt that the artist achieved this effect through neither ignorance nor indifference. He has taken care to show us that he liked these unnaturally elongated forms, for, to make doubly sure of his effect, he placed an oddly shaped high column of equally unusual proportions in the background of the painting. As for the arrangement of the picture, he also showed us that he did not believe in conventional harmonies. Instead of distributing his figures in equal pairs on both sides of the Madonna, he crammed a jostling crowd of angels into a narrow corner, and left the other side wide open to show the tall figure of the prophet, so reduced in size through the distance that he hardly reaches the Madonna's knee. There can be no doubt, then, that if this be madness there is method in it. The painter wanted to be unorthodox. He wanted to show that the classical solution of perfect harmony is not the only solution conceivable; that natural simplicity is one way of achieving beauty, but that there are less direct ways of getting interesting effects for sophisticated lovers of art. Whether we like or dislike the road he took, we must admit that he was consistent. Indeed, Parmigianino and all the artists of his time who deliberately sought to create something new and unexpected, even at the expense of the 'natural' beauty established by the great masters, were perhaps the first 'modern' artists. We shall see, indeed, that what is now called 'modern' art may have had its roots in a similar urge to avoid the obvious and achieve effects which differ from conventional natural beauty.

From "The Story of Art", by E.H. Gombrich

List of works

Madonna with the long neck, Madonna with the Long Neck, 1534-40, Oil on wood, 216 x 132 cm, Uffizi, Florence
Self-portrait in a Convex Mirror, c.1524; Oil on wood, diameter 24.4 cm; Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
Vision of Saint Jerome, (National Gallery, London)
Cupid, c.1523-24; Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna[1]
Madonna and Child 1525, Galleria Doria-Pamphili, Rome[2]
Portrait of a Man with a Book (Attributed, York City Art Gallery).
The Circumcision (Detroit Institute of Arts)
Portrait of a Young Woman (Antea) Capodimonte Museum, Naples).
Holy Family with the Infant Saint John the Baptist, (Capodimonte)
The Conversion of Saint Paul, (Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna)
Saint Roch and Donor, Gamba Chapel San Petronio Bologna
Allegorical Portrait of Charles V, (New York)
The Annunciation, (Metrolpolitan Museum of Art, New York))

References

Parmigianino, Cecil Gould. ISBN 1-55859-892-8
The Story of Art, E.H. Gombrich, London : Phaidon Press, Ltd., 1995 ISBN 0714832472
Parmigianino and European Mannerism Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna in English