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PARMIGIANO (1504-154o)
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See also:PARMIGIANO (1504-154o) . The name of this celebrated painter of the Lombard. school was, in full, See also:Girolamo See also:Francesco Maria Mazzuoli, or Mazzola; he dropped the name Girolamo, and was only known as Francesco. He has been more commonly named II Parmigiano (or its diminutive, II Parmigianino), from his native See also:city, See also:Parma. Francesco, See also:born on the rxth of See also:January 1504, was the son of a painter. Losing his See also:father in See also:early See also:child-See also:hood, he was brought up by two uncles, also painters, Michele and See also:Pier-Ilario Mazzola. His See also:faculty for the See also:art See also:developed at a very boyish See also:age, and he addicted himself to the See also:style of See also:Correggio, who visited Parma in 1519. He did not, however, become an imitator of Correggio; his style in its maturity may be regarded as a See also:fusion of Correggio with See also:Raphael and Giulio Romano, and thus fairly See also:original. Even at the age of fourteen (See also:Vasari says sixteen) he had painted a " See also:Baptism of See also:Christ," surprisingly mature. Before the age of nineteen, when he migrated to See also:Rome, he had covered with frescoes seven chapels in the See also: Arrived in Rome, he presented his specimen pictures to the See also:pope, See also:Clement VII., who gladly and admiringly accepted them, and assigned to the youthful See also:genius the See also:painting of the See also:Sala de' Pontefici, the ceilings of which had been already decorated by Giovanni da See also:Udine. But while for-tune was winning him with her most insinuating See also:smiles, the utter ruin of the. See also:sack by the See also:Constable de See also:Bourbon and his See also:German and other soldiers overtook both Rome and Parmigiano. At the date of this hideous See also:catastrophe he was engaged in painting that large picture which now figures in the See also:National See also:Gallery, the " See also:Vision of St See also:Jerome " (with the Baptist pointing upward and backward to the Madonna and See also:infant Jesus in the See also:sky). It is said that through all the See also:crash and peril of this See also:barbarian irruption Parmigiano sat quietly before his vast See also:panel, painting as if nothing had happened. A See also:band of German soldiery burst into his apartment, breathing See also:fire and slaughter; but, struck with amazement at the sight, and with some reverence for art and her votary (the other events of the See also:siege forbid us to suppose that reverence for See also:religion had any See also:part in it), they calmed down, and afforded the painter all the See also:protection that he needed at the moment. Their See also:captain, being something of a connoisseur, exacted his See also:tribute, however—a large number of designs. Rome was now no See also:place for Parmigiano. He See also:left with his See also:uncle, intending apparently to return to Parma; but, staying in See also:Bologna he settled down there for a while, and was induced to remain three or four years. Here he painted for the nuns of St See also:Margaret his most celebrated altarpiece (now in the See also:Academy of Bologna), the "Madonna and Child, with Margaret and other mints." Spite of the See also:great disaster of Rome, the See also:life of Mazzola had hitherto been fairly prosperous—the admiration which he excited being proportionate to his See also:charm of See also:person and manner, and to the precocity and brilliancy (rather than See also:depth) of his genius; but from this See also:time forward he became an unfortunate, and it would appear a soured and self-neglected, man. In 1531 he returned to Parma, and was commissioned to execute an extensive See also:series of frescoes in the See also:choir of the church of S. Maria della Steccata. These were to be completed in See also:November 1532; and See also:half-See also:payment, 200 See also:golden scudi, was made to him in advance. A See also:ceiling was allotted to him, and an See also:arch in front of the ceiling; on the arch he painted six figures—two of them in full See also:colour, and four in monochrome—See also:Adam, See also:Eve, some Virtues, and the famous figure (monochrome) of See also:Moses about to shatter the tables of the See also:law. But, after five or six years from the date of the See also:contract, Parmigiano had barely made a See also:good beginning with his stipulated work. According to Vasari, he neglected painting in favour of See also:alchemy—he laboured over futile attempts to " congeal See also:mercury," being in a See also:hurry to get See also:rich anyhow. It is rather difficult to believe that the various graphic and See also:caustic phrases which Vasari bestows upon this theory of the facts of Mazzola's life are altogether gratuitous and wide of the See also:mark; nevertheless the painter's See also:principal biographer, the Padre Affo, undertook to refute Vasari's statements, and most subsequent writers have accepted Affo's conclusions. Whatever the cause, Parmigiano failed to fulfil his contract, and was imprisoned in See also:default. Promising to amend, he was released; but instead of redeeming his See also:pledge he decamped to Casal See also:Maggiore, in the territory of See also:Cremona. Here, according even to Vasari, he relinquished alchemy and resumed painting; yet he still hankered (or is said by Vasari to have hankered) after his retorts and furnaces, lost all his brightness, and presented a dim, poverty-stricken, hirsute and uncivilized aspect. He died of a See also:fever on the 24th of See also:August 1540, before he had completed his See also:thirty-seventh See also:year. By his own See also:desire he was buried naked in the church of the See also:Servites called La See also:Fontana, near Casal Maggiore. See also:Grace has always and rightly been regarded as the See also:chief See also:artistic endowment of Parmigiano—grace which is genuine as an expression of the painter's nature, but partakes partly of the artificial and affected in its developments. " Un po'di grazia del Parmigianino " (a little, or, as we might say, just a spice, of Parmigianino's grace) was among the ingredients which See also:Agostino See also:Caracci's famed See also:sonnet desiderates for a perfect picture. Mazzola constantly made many studies of the same figure, in See also:order to get the most graceful attainable See also:form, See also:movement and drapery—the last being a point in which he was very successful. The See also:pro-portions of his figures are over-See also:long for the truth of nature—the stature, fingers and See also:neck; one of his Madonnas, now in the Pitti Gallery, is currently named " La Madonna del collo lungo." Neither expression nor colour is a strong point in his See also:works; the figures in his compositions are generally few—the chief exception being the picture of " Christ See also:Preaching to the Multitude." He etched a few plates, being apparently the earliest See also:Italian painter who was also an etcher; but the statement that he produced several woodcuts is not correct—he overlooked the See also:production of them by other hands. The most admired easel-picture of Parmigiano is the " See also:Cupid Making a See also:Bow," with two See also:children at his feet, one crying, and the other laughing. This was painted in 1536 for Francesco Boiardi of Parma, and is now in the gallery of See also:Vienna. There are various replicas of it, and some of these may perhaps be from Mazzola's own See also:hand. Of his portrait-painting, two interesting examples are the likeness of Amerigo See also:Vespucci (after whom See also:America is named) in the Studj Gallery of See also:Naples, and the painter's own portrait in the Uffizi of See also:Florence. One of Parmigiano's principal pupils was his See also:cousin, Girolamo di Michele Mazzola; probably some of the works attributed to Francesco are really by Girolamo. See B. See also:Bossi, Disegni originals di Francesco Mazzuoli (1789); A. S. See also:Mortara, Della Vita di Francesco Mazzuoli (1846); Toschi, Affresehi, &c. (1846). (W. M. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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