Parmigianino: Drawings & Paintings (Annotated)

Parmigianino: Drawings & Paintings (Annotated)

Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola (Parma, 11th January 1503 - Casalmaggiore, near Cremona, 24th August 1540), called il Parmigianino because of his birthplace, and also because of his reduced height and graceful appearance was an Italian painter, considered one of the greatest representatives of Mannerism.He was trained in his hometown by his uncles Pier Ilario Filippo and Michele Mazzola, modest provincial painters. He continued his apprenticeship working directly with Correggio who was at that time engaged in the great cycles of frescoes in Parma.His first work was dated from 1519, The Baptism of Christ. He also dedicated himself to the decoration of some chapels of the temple of St. John the Evangelist. Around 1523 he worked on the boudoir of Paola de Gonzaga on the Rocca di Sanvitale in Fontanello, where he made a recreation room of San Paolo de Correggio.Settling in Rome in 1524, he became acquainted with the work of Michelangelo and Raffaello Sanzio, who would influence him considerably. It is known in the city that he took part in the meetings and discussions that were held in the house of Paolo Valdambrini, secretary to Pope Clement VII, attended by Rosso Fiorentino, Perin del Vaga and Giulio Romano. Among the works of this period is The Vision of Saint Jerome of 1525, Mystical Marriage of Saint Margaret and the Portrait of Lorenzo Cybo, from the same year.After Rome, he settled in Bologna. There he commissioned Antonio da Trento to reproduce his designs through chiaroscuro woodcut, which imitated the textures of watercolor; today six plates are known, such as Martyrdom of Two Saints and The Tibetan Sibyl and Emperor Augustus. The relationship between the master and the engraver did not have to end cordially, and the engraver fled, taking his belongings from the workshop, according to the chronicles. Parmigianino later returned to his hometown, where he spent the last years of his life tormented by the constant requests of the Steccata church, which urged him to finish the frescoes that had been commissioned in 1531.Imprisoned because of debts, he managed to flee to Casalmaggiore. There, while trying to solve all his problems through alchemy, he died in despair at the age of 37.