PARMIGIANINO (FRANCESCO MAZZOLA), known as Il Parmigianino — Painter and engraver, born in Parma to Filippo, a Bellinesque painter, on 11 January 1503, died at Casalmaggiore on 24 August 1540.
Of his early works, a typical example survives in the parish church of Bardi (Parma): a *Betrothal of St Catherine* (c. 1522), somewhat swollen and awkward in execution, yet with a gentle expression. From 1522 to 1524 he painted, following Correggio’s lead, important frescoes in seven chapels of the church of S. Giovanni Evangelista in Parma; then he moved to Rome, Bologna (portrait of Emperor Charles V), back to Parma (where he decorated the vault and apse of the main chapel in S. Maria della Steccata), and shortly afterwards to Fontanellato, in the Sanvitale castle, where his marvellous frescoes illustrating episodes from the myth of Diana are preserved. After various wanderings he settled at Casalmaggiore, where he prematurely ended both his brilliant career and his life.
Besides his fresco decorations, numerous altarpieces and portraits that adorn the principal Italian and foreign galleries, Parmigianino left a series of drawings remarkable for their exquisite touch, and some fifteen etchings distinguished by their delicate, reticulated lines. Without in any way plagiarising Correggio, he succeeded in perpetuating joyous grace in works such as the Fontanellato frescoes and the exquisitely refined *Nativity* in the Cook Gallery at Richmond, as well as in certain unforgettable details, for instance the embrace of St John to the boy Jesus in the Mannerist *Madonna with St Zacharias* at the Uffizi. What, however, most characterises his rational yet voluptuous temperament is his refined aestheticism, expressed through the predominance of linear and volumetric elegance (slender columns, softly curved amphorae, accessories of setting or costume). Notable examples, in addition to the well-known *Madonna and Child with Angels* in the Pitti Gallery, known as the ‘Madonna dal collo lungo’, include the other precious *Madonna* in the Pinacoteca of Bologna, with the blonde St Margaret in a golden-yellow mantle, and the graceful, statuesque *Cupid bending his bow* in the Vienna Gallery. Yet this does not prevent Parmigianino from having occasionally revealed, in religious subjects, if not a genuine mystical spirituality, at least a sincere poetic feeling. This is shown, for example, by the small *Nativity* in the Doria Gallery in Rome and the intimate scene of the *Betrothal of St Catherine* in the Parma Gallery. Above all, however, Parmigianino’s lasting contribution lies in his extraordinarily vivid portraits, in which he resolved stylistic problems in a unified manner while adapting himself to the character of each sitter: authentic creations and celebrations of states of mind that fear no comparison with those produced by the most celebrated masters of every school.