Madonna with the Long Neck

Madonna with the Long Neck, oil-on-panel painting by Italian artist Parmigianino (Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola), created between 1534 and 1540. The work depicts the Virgin Mary holding the Christ Child, while a group of youthful figures, typically described as angels, crowd next to her, and a miniscule prophet, possibly St. Jerome, holds up a scroll at the bottom right corner. The painting was left unfinished at Parmigianino’s death in 1540. The incomplete nature of the work as well as the exaggerated features of the figures result in a rather strange painting that is, nonetheless, typical of the Mannerist movement.

Mannerism

The Mannerist movement predominated in Italy from about 1520 to the end of the 16th century. It is often described as a reaction to or an exaggeration of the values promoted by Renaissance artists, including symmetry and “natural” proportions as a celebration of rationalism. Mannerism, on the other hand, is often characterized by artificiality and artiness, by a thoroughly self-conscious cultivation of elegance and technical facility, and by a sophisticated indulgence in the bizarre. The figures in Mannerist works frequently have graceful but strangely elongated limbs, small heads, and stylized facial features, while their poses seem difficult or contrived.

Description

In Madonna with the Long Neck, Parmigianino apparently discards any Renaissance notion of proportion and naturalism, creating a Virgin with such extreme elegance that she appears almost nonhuman. Art historian E.H. Gombrich describes the work as appearing as if “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.” Indeed, the work derives its popular name from the elongated neck of its subject, but many features of Mary’s body are disproportionate. She has very wide hips, in which Jesus sleeps, but her upper half feels much smaller. Her diminutive head has a youthful, gentle face, which recalls the Madonnas of Raphael. One of her long, slim hands delicately touches her breast, drawing the viewer’s attention to her lengthy, seemingly boneless fingers. Her large legs taper to become tiny feet and toes. The baby Jesus is also noticeably elongated. He seems to reach a size that is more commonly attributed to older children, though the figure retains infantlike features, including in the shape of his head, hands, and feet.

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The excessively large bodies of mother and child and their poses recall Michelangelo’s Pietà, in which the artist increased the scale of Mary in order for her to believably cradle the crucified body of the adult Christ. Yet Parmigianino has complicated their postures in this painting. His Virgin bends at the neck, waist, and knees, giving the appearance of twisting that creates a figura serpentinata (Italian: “serpentine figure”). The technique was frequently used in Mannerist artwork, as if to push the concepts of contrapposto to the point of exaggeration. The figure of Jesus, splayed across his mother’s lap, also twists his body to create the spiral-like figura serpentinata.

The composition of the painting feels slightly skewed, as a group of youthful figures look as though they are trying to squeeze themselves between the left edge of the painting and the Madonna, who is almost twice their size. The figures are typically interpreted as angels, though only one large feathered wing can be seen at the left, and it is unclear to which adolescent it belongs. The angel closest to the front plane delicately holds up a vase or urn that reflects an image of the cross on which Christ will be crucified. She looks rapturously toward the Virgin, with her head in profile. Another angel stands just behind the Virgin, her oversized eyes staring outward. Her slender, aquiline nose and golden ringlets resemble the features of Mary. The other angels seemingly try to catch a glimpse of the Christ Child. Another angel, just below Madonna’s right elbow, appears unfinished, its face shrouded in darkness.

Behind the group, a red and gold curtain opens up to reveal an expanse of hills and sky, in which there is an unfinished colonnade. At the bottom right of the painting is an oddly miniscule figure, usually interpreted as St. Jerome, who is often included in scenes of the Virgin and Child. He is draped in classical robes and holds open a large scroll while glancing over his shoulder as if in conversation with someone. Scholars speculate that the artist intended to place St. Francis in the space next to Jerome but only began the saint’s foot; the rest was left incomplete with the painter’s death. The size of Jerome is perplexing; scholars believe that Parmigianino may have intended for the figure to be deep in the background, but the arrangement is ambiguous.

History

Madonna with the Long Neck was commissioned by Elena Baiardi in 1534 for the funerary chapel of her late husband, Francesco Tagliaferri, in the church of Santa Maria dei Servi, Parma, Italy. Two years after Parmigianino’s death, an inscription was added to the painting at the base of the colonnade, reading “Fato praeventus F. Mazzoli Paremnsis absolvere nequivit” (“Adverse destiny prevented Francesco Mazzola from Parma from completing this work”). The painting had been displayed in the church of Santa Maria dei Servi for nearly 150 years, when in 1698 Ferdinando de’ Medici, a member of the Florentine dynasty known for its patronage of the arts, purchased the piece for his private collection. The artwork was acquired by the Uffizi Gallery, Florence, in 1948, and it remains one of the museum’s most well-known pieces.

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