The exhibition Parmigianino and European Mannerism, which celebrates the 5th centenary of the artist’s birth (1503-1540), will take place at the Kunsthistoriches Museum, Vienna, from June 4 to September 14.
Formerly held in Palazzo della Pilotta, Galleria Nazionale di Parma, it focuses on an eccentric artist and brilliant mould-breaker, who lead Renaissance art to the highest peaks of Mannerism.
We could say that Parmigianino’s character was central but his fate was peripheral; in other words his geographical origins were peripheral when compared to the central nature of Christianity, power and the progress of art in the Renaissance, all representative features of Milan under the Sforzas and Rome ruled by powerful popes.

self portrait

The artist’s work unfolded in the first four decades of the century when Parma had yet to experience the stable rule of the Farnese family, which began in 1545. The 1518 Parma census counted about 20,000 inhabitants. The city had still to become the capital of the duchy and we can already perceive the brilliant artists Correggio and Parmigianino in the midst of political, aristocratic and religious instability.
Wealthy and socially important clients enabled them to express their best on the easel and in altarpieces, in small chapels and on large walls. Hence they became the highest and most tangible sign of a school that kept growing till the close of the century. Parmigianino was born of a family of painters in 1503. His uncles, Pier Ilario and Michele, were his staunch champions. His father, Filippo, died of the plague in 1505. His elder brother Zaccaria’s works dating from 1524 to 1525 are just being rediscovered in Umbria and let us not forget his cousin Gerolamo Bedoli and son Alessandro.
The artist’s patrons were on the one hand pope Clement VII and on the other Charles V. The latter greatly appreciated his portrait depicting victory endowed with wings. But when the choice finally fell on Tiziano, making him the painter of Hapsburg glory, Parmigianino’s chances of success fell, being the younger of the two. His existential and artistic course show him standing apart, making life an art and art a life. Benedictine monks were the real founders and supporters of a new style in Parma: they became the real and trustworthy guarantors for Parmigianino and Correggio when 15th century social patterns broke down.

The exhibition in question focuses on Parmigianino, a painter of genius, and comprises eighty works: over seventy drawings and fifty extremely rare items representing all the so-called minor arts. The exhibition unfolds from the oldest section of the Galleria Nazionale and reaches the Farnese Theatre and the high-vaulted Guazzatoio (horse pond).
It is divided in sections.
The first, called “Contemporary Masters”, exhibits masterpieces by Correggio, Pordenone, Rosso Fiorentino, Beccafumi, Pontormo and Giulio Romano.
The second is dedicated to “Parmigianino, illustrator and engraver”. His “Self-portrait in a convex mirror”, which focuses on the artist’s biography and captures his face, dominates the scene in the first hall. We then move on to his ideas that are briefly hinted at or extensively described in a significant sequence of drawings, each of which is a masterpiece. We can read therein landscapes, portraits and sacred, mythological and profane scenes: a wide selection of Renaissance studies and techniques.
The third section is dedicated to Parmigianino’s real work. It displays portraits and altarpieces - a significant expression of Mannerism.
Some masterpieces we can admire: the Turkish Slave and Cupid shaping his bow, Anthea (Capodimonte Gallery, Naples), St. Barbara (Prado Museum, Madrid), Madonna and child with St. Margaret and other saints (Pinacoteca di Bologna), The circumcision (Detroit Institute of Arts), The reader (York) and The Virgin of St. Zacharius (Galleria degli Uffizi).
These are followed by 16th century artists (Gerolamo Bedoli, Michelangelo Anselmi, Giorgio Gandini del Grano, Bertoja and G.B. Tinti) and representatives of early Italian mannerism who drew strength and inspiration from Parmigianino’s works (Schiamone, Tintoretto, Lambert Sustris, Lelio Orsi, Bassano, Mastelletta, Calvaert and Scarsellino). Then we can appreciate the great masters of the Fontainebleau school (Dell’Abate, Primaticcio and Maestro di Flora) and Rudolph II’s school (Van Aachen, Jos van Winghe and Rottenhammer).
The exhibition retraces a trend or better the history of Mannerism that officially began with Michelangelo, Raffaello and the latter’s students and developed till late in the century, making Parmigianino one of its leading and most relevant protagonists. We gain from Vasari that Parmigianino died at thirty-seven: “a beautiful appearance, a delightful face and aspect, rather an angel than a man” and then “with a long beard and long, unkempt tresses” he has become “almost an untamed man”.
Parmigianino’s works stand alongside Raffaello’s, Michelangelo’s and Leonardo’s.

And if you long to delight in a masterpiece, Anthea is the right choice, called Parmigianino’s lover in inventories.
This famous courtesan is portrayed bejewelled and robed in fine silk. Her hairdo is preciously adorned by a pendent with a pearl, she wears earrings and her slim index finger gently toys with her chain. She has the gentle eyes of a young model.
Her dress has puffed sleeves, a high waist corset and a revealing neckline that enhances a firm bosom.
She wears a marten fur on her shoulder. Her attire also comprises gloves and a white apron, an accessory often used at the time in north Italy. This portrait, a real masterpiece, depicts a beauty that stands the test of time, remaining vibrant and vital even through the ages.
His study disclosed the unfinished Madonna of the long neck (Galleria degli Uffizi), painted for Elena Baiardi. Its ermetism has caused reams to be written in defence of its deep meaning, which lies with our artist in his tomb, in Casalmaggiore (Cremona), in that Chiesa della Fontana (church with the fount) where he is buried. Translated by interpres sas