- Byname of:
- Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola
- Mazzola also spelled:
- Mazzuoli
- Born:
- Jan. 11, 1503, Parma, duchy of Milan [Italy]
- Died:
- Aug. 24, 1540, Casalmaggiore, Cremona (aged 37)
- Movement / Style:
- Early Renaissance
- Mannerism
- Renaissance
Parmigianino
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Who was Parmigianino?
Parmigianino (1503–1540) was an Italian painter and one of the first to develop the elegant Mannerist style, which greatly influenced the post-High Renaissance generation. Correggio significantly impacted Parmigianino's early artistic growth, evident in his initial notable work, Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine.
After moving to Rome in 1524, he painted Vision of St. Jerome. Later, he created one of his masterpieces, Madonna with St. Margaret and Other Saints. Parmigianino's style, characterized by its smooth attenuations and technical skill, became a prominent Mannerist manifestation, opposing the naturalism of High Renaissance art. His works feature ambiguous spatial composition, distorted human figures, and a pursuit of rhythmical, sensuous beauty exceeding natural beauty.
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Where and when did Parmigianino live?
Parmigianino, born Francesco Mazzola, was an Italian painter who lived from January 11, 1503, to August 24, 1540. He was born in Parma, in the duchy of Milan [now Italy], and died in Casalmaggiore, Cremona. Parmigianino was among the first artists to develop the elegant and sophisticated Mannerist style, which greatly influenced the post-High Renaissance generation.
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What kind of art did Parmigianino create?
Parmigianino, an Italian painter, was a key figure in developing Mannerism, an elegant, sophisticated style that greatly influenced post-High Renaissance art. His works feature ambiguity in spatial composition, elongated figures, and a pursuit of "grace," a beauty beyond nature.
Parmigianino's notable works include the Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine, Madonna with St. Margaret and Other Saints, and Madonna of the Long Neck. Also a remarkable portrait painter, his portraits include Gian Galeazzo Sanvitale and Antea. Moreover, he was among the first Italian artists to practice etching, reproducing his drawings with the freedom of a pen.
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What is Parmigianino known for in art history?
Parmigianino (1503-1540) was an Italian painter and one of the first to develop the elegant and sophisticated Mannerist style, which greatly influenced the post-High Renaissance generation.
His style is known for its ambiguity of spatial composition, distortion and elongation of the human figure, and the pursuit of graceful, sensuous beauty beyond natural beauty. His notable works include Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine, Madonna with St. Margaret and Other Saints, and Madonna of the Long Neck. Parmigianino was also a remarkable portrait painter, with some of his best portraits displayed in the National Museum and Gallery of Capodimonte, including Gian Galeazzo Sanvitale and Antea.
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What are some famous works by Parmigianino?
Parmigianino (Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola) was an Italian painter and one of the first artists to develop the Mannerist style. Correggio influenced Parmigianino's early work, such as the Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine. In Rome, he painted the Vision of St. Jerome. One of his masterpieces, Madonna with St. Margaret and Other Saints, was painted in Bologna. His principal works from his last period include the Madonna of the Long Neck and the frescoes on the vault of Sta. Maria della Steccata.
Parmigianino was also a portrait painter; some of his best portraits include Gian Galeazzo Sanvitale and Antea. His style is known for its ambiguity of spatial composition, distortion and elongation of the human figure, and pursuit of rhythmical, sensuous beauty.
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How did Parmigianino’s style influence later artists?
Parmigianino developed an elegant and sophisticated version of Mannerism, becoming a formative influence on the post-High Renaissance generation. His style opposed the naturalistic basis inherent in High Renaissance art, marking an extreme development of Raphael's late manner.
Parmigianino's Mannerism significantly impacted younger artists, including Vasari and Francesco Salviati, who combined the artifice of late Raphael decorations with Michelangelo's complex figure style. His attenuated elegance is evident in his paintings and sensitive drawings. As one of the first Italian artists to practice etching, he used the etching needle with the freedom of a pen to reproduce his drawings, which were in great demand.
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Parmigianino (born Jan. 11, 1503, Parma, duchy of Milan [Italy]—died Aug. 24, 1540, Casalmaggiore, Cremona) was an Italian painter who was one of the first artists to develop the elegant and sophisticated version of Mannerist style that became a formative influence on the post-High Renaissance generation.
There is no doubt that Correggio was the strongest single influence on Parmigianino’s early development, but Parmigianino probably was never his pupil. The influence is apparent in Parmigianino’s first important work, the Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine (c. 1521). About 1522–23 he executed two series of frescoes: one series, in two side chapels of S. Giovanni Evangelista, in Parma, was executed contemporaneously with Correggio’s great murals on the dome and pendentives of that church, and the other, representing the Legend of Diana and Actaeon, was executed on the ceiling of a room in the Rocca Sanvitale at Fontanellato just outside Parma. The scheme of the latter decoration recalls Correggio’s work in the Camera di San Paolo in Parma.
After the summer of 1524, Parmigianino moved to Rome, taking with him three specimens of his work to impress the pope, including the famous self-portrait that he had painted on a convex panel from his reflection in a convex mirror. His chief painting done in Rome is the large Vision of St. Jerome (1527). Although this work shows the influence of Michelangelo, it was Raphael’s ideal beauty of form and feature that influenced his entire oeuvre. While at work on the Vision of St. Jerome in 1527, he was interrupted by soldiers of the imperial army taking part in the sack of Rome, and he left for Bologna. There he painted one of his masterpieces, the Madonna with St. Margaret and Other Saints. In 1531 he returned to Parma, where he remained for the rest of his life, the principal works of this last period being the Madonna of the Long Neck (1534) and the frescoes on the vault preceding the apse of Sta. Maria della Steccata. The latter were to have been only part of a much larger scheme of decoration in the church, but Parmigianino was extremely dilatory over their execution, and he was eventually imprisoned for breaking his contract, while the frescoes were contracted to Giulio Romano and Michelangelo Anselmi.
Parmigianino was one of the most remarkable portrait painters of the century outside Venice. Some of his best portraits are in Naples, in the National Museum and Gallery of Capodimonte, including the Gian Galeazzo Sanvitale (1524) and the portrait of a young woman called Antea (c. 1535–37).
The style that he developed was, in its suave attenuations and technical virtuosity, one of the most brilliant and influential manifestations of Mannerism. It was an extreme development of Raphael’s late manner and opposed the naturalistic basis inherent in High Renaissance art.
Parmigianino’s works are distinguished by ambiguity of spatial composition, by distortion and elongation of the human figure, and by the pursuit of what the art historian Giorgio Vasari called “grace”; that is to say, a rhythmical, sensuous beauty beyond the beauty of nature. This last quality of attenuated elegance is evident not only in Parmigianino’s paintings but also in his numerous and sensitive drawings. One of the first Italian artists to practice etching, Parmigianino used the etching needle with the freedom of a pen, usually to reproduce his own drawings, which were in great demand.