Parmigianino, Francesco Mazzola, called Il

PARMIGIANINO, FRANCESCO MAZZOLA, Called Il — Painter and engraver, b. in Parma, son of Filippo, a painter of the Bellini school, on 11 Jan. 1503, d. at Casalmaggiore on 24 Aug. 1540.

Of his beginnings a typical testimony survives in the archpriestly church of Bardi (Parma), a Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine (around 1522), somewhat swollen and awkward, but of gentle expression. From 1522 to 1524, following in Correggio's footsteps, he executed important frescoes in certain chapels of the church of S. Giovanni Evangelista in Parma, then moved on to Rome, Bologna (portrait of the Emperor Charles V), again to Parma (there he decorated the vault and the apse basin of the main chapel in S. Maria della Steccata) and shortly afterwards to Fontanellato, in the castle of the counts Sanvitale, where his admirable frescoes with episodes from the myth of Diana are preserved, and finally, after various wanderings, to Casalmaggiore, where he prematurely ended his luminous career and his life. Besides the fresco decorations, the numerous altarpieces and the portraits that adorn the principal Italian and foreign galleries, P. left a series of drawings, of a most delicate touch, and some fifteen etchings, with light, cross-hatched strokes. Without plagiarizing Correggio in the least, he knew how to continue his joyous grace in works such as the frescoes of Fontanellato and the exquisitely refined Nativity in the Cook Gallery in Richmond, as well as in certain unforgettable details, such as the embrace of the infant St. John with the feminine child Jesus in the mannerist Madonna with St. Zachary, in the Uffizi. But what characterizes his reasoning and at the same time voluptuous temperament is a refined aestheticism, expressed through the predominance of linear and volumetric prestige (tapering columns, vases with soft curves, environmental or costume accessories). It will suffice to mention, besides the very famous Madonna with the Child and Angels of the Pitti Gallery, known as "with the long neck," the other precious Madonna of the Pinacoteca of Bologna, with the blond St. Margaret in a golden-yellow mantle, and the comely and statuesque Cupid Bending His Bow in the Gallery of Vienna. This does not prevent P. from having sometimes manifested, in religious subjects, if not a genuine mystical spirituality, at least a frank sense of poetry. This is shown, for example, by the small Nativity of the Doria Gallery in Rome, and the intimate scene of the Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine in the Gallery of Parma. But to P.'s credit there remain above all the most vital portraits, in which he succeeded in resolving problems of style in a unified sense, while adapting himself, time and again, to the temperament of the sitter: authentic creations and celebrations of states of mind, which need not fear comparison with those due to the most celebrated masters of every school.

Alberto Neppi