Francesco Parmigianino

The son of the artist Filippo Mazzola . Francesco was orphaned at two years old, he was raised by his father's brothers - artists Michele and Pierre Hilario. The first picture - “The Baptism of Jesus” - painted at the age of sixteen. In 1521, due to hostilities in the Parma region (the city was besieged by the troops of Francis I ), Parmigianino moved to Vyadana. Quite often, he came to Cremona , where at that time Giovanni Antonio Pordenone worked on the fresco cycle of the cathedral, influencing Parmigianino to a much greater extent than Correggio , whom he met in 1522.

Parma period

In 1522, Parmigianino worked simultaneously with Correggio in the Parma church of San Giovanni Evangelista, who painted the dome there. Correggio's influence is felt in the early works of Parmigianino: “The Mystical Betrothal of St. Catherine ” (1521, second option - 1527-1537); frescoes in two side chapels of the aforementioned Parma church (c. 1522 - 1523 ). But Parmigianino, in search of his individual style, largely rethought the experience of his senior colleague, creating his own style - intellectual, intense, encrypted and complicated - a peculiar version of mannerism ^[2] . According to , the work of Parmigianino “dialectically opposed the artistic principles of Correggio”, whose bright world of works is always open to meet the audience.

At seventeen, Parmigianino received an order for a cycle of frescoes to decorate the chambers of Paola Gonzaga, the wife of Gian Galeazo Sanvital (Fontanellato, Parma, Rocca Sanvital, completed c. 1523). The theme of the frescoes of Rocca Sanvitale was the myth of Diana - on the same plot, Correggio painted the refectory for the abbess of the monastery of San Paolo. At first glance, Parmigianino literally quotes the frescoes of the Camera di San Paolo. But Correggio strives to achieve a harmonious balance between the creation of human hands and nature. Parmigianino, stylizing, destroys credibility, creating a work whose hermetic space is filled with objects written out with the greatest accuracy, and lighting and color scheme are beyond reality.

Frescoes in Fontanellato

According to some reports, Parmigianino was fond of magic , which was reflected in the motives and symbols of not only one of the artist’s most famous works - frescoes in Fontanellato on the themes of Ovid's Metamorphosis , but also in many works of easel painting.

Roman period

Parmigianino arrived in Rome with his uncles in the summer of 1524 . According to Vasari, “studying in Rome, he wanted to see all the ancient and new works of sculpture and painting that were in this city. But he especially bowed to the creations of Michelangelo Buonarroti and Rafael Urbinsky . " Parmigianino presented several paintings to Pope Clement VII , including “Self-portrait in a convex mirror” on a wooden hemisphere, where he masterfully transmitted the optical distortion of reflection. Such work could be liked by artists from the environment of the pope - here the ideals of sensual beauty, the unique individuality of each master were most valued, the emphasis was on the secular orientation of art. In Rome, Parmigianino became close to the mannerists Sebastiano del Piombo and Rosso Fiorentino . The artist copied Rafael Stanzas and his trellis cartons made for the Sistine Chapel . Under the influence of Raphael's “ Madonna in the Meadow ” (1505-1506), Parmigianino created the painting “The Virgin with the Baby and John the Baptist”, probably the only composition in his work where the space is built with exact observance of the laws of perspective. A short stay in the Eternal City was marked by the creation of the paintings “The Mystical Marriage of St. Catherine”, “The Vision of St. Jerome ”. “Vision of St. Jerome” (1527, London, National Gallery) - the last Roman painting by the artist and the result of a study of Michelangelo’s “Bruges Madonna”. The peculiarity of this composition, built on a rotational movement, is upward striving and intentionally enlarged figures of the characters. When the mercenaries of Charles V captured Rome in 1527, Parmigianino worked on this altar image. The soldiers bursting into his workshop did not touch either the paintings or the artist. But after some time, Parmigianino was forced to leave his home and Rome, “Vision of St. Jerome” he transferred to the church of Santa Maria della Pace.

Bologna period

In 1527, Parmigianino arrived in Bologna , where he spent four years. During this period, a new feature appeared in the work of Parmigianino - pathetics in the expression of religious feelings by the characters. Parmigianino's first Bologna work was “ Saint Roch with a Donor” for the church of San Petronio. The verticalism of the composition is emphasized by the movement of the hands of the saint, filling the whole first plan with the unnaturally long fingers of the donor, kneeling in prayer, with his eyes fixed on the sky. By definition, Vasari, Parmigianino portrayed Roch, "overcoming pain." In Bologna, a new style of the artist is taking shape: from motifs inspired by Raphael’s work, he goes on to more abstractness, to search for a special, unattainable beauty, and his palette becomes colder.

Among the works created in Bologna is the famous “Madonna and Rose” (1529-1530, Dresden, Art Gallery). The motive of the circle becomes decisive in this picture: all lines of composition repeat the shape of the globe on which the baby Christ rests. Vasari noted the "most beautiful expression" of the face of the Madonna and the naturalness of the baby. The rose is the symbolic center of the picture, at the same time the attribute of the Immaculate Conception and the alchemical sign of completion of the final stage of the process of transformation of matter - opus (opus).

"The conversion of Saul, " according to art critic Paola Rossi "by the power of transforming reality of fantasy and formal abstractness" has no precedent. Parmigianino, having first conceived a multi-figure composition, left only two characters. A fairy-tale animal (according to 1609 inventory “a galloping giraffe or a horse”) is shown at the moment of the highest traffic stress. A flash of light that overthrew the persecutor of Christians Saul to the ground illuminates an alarming landscape. However, the picture is full of carefully written and very believable details. Vasari called "The Appeal ..." "a rare work."

Return to Parma

Returning to his homeland, Parmigianino performed - among other works - his most famous painting - “The Madonna with a Long Neck ” (about 1535 , not completed). Vasari explained the incompleteness of the picture by the fact that the work performed by the artist did not completely satisfy him.

In May 1531 he received an order for frescoes glorifying the Virgin Mary in the church of Santa Maria della Stekkata. The main thing was to be the scene of the Coronation of Mary . Parmigianino pledged to complete the work in 18 months. The fact that the artist, who always worked individually, attracted assistants, shows how difficult it was for him to decorate Santa Maria della Stekkata. The work was interrupted indefinitely, since the supply of materials was irregular, and the church administration showed dissatisfaction with the unusual intention of the artist. In 1539, Parmigianino completely completed only the painting of the arch of presbytery , sustained in an unusual classical way for him. Researchers see in this work the influence of the Yellow Hall murals in the Golden House ^{[3] of} Nero and Raphael's frescoes in the Vatican Loggias and Villa Madama. The theme for the frescoes of the arch of the presbytery was the parable of the Virgin of the Reasonable and Unreasonable . Here Parmigianino departs from the ideals of irrational beauty, referring to precisely calibrated classical proportions, color schemes and jewelry motifs typical of the architecture of Roman palaces. Creating picturesque friezes, he precisely follows, until then ignored, laws of perspective. Parmigianino, who started the murals on the absins of the church, was not satisfied and destroyed them. According to Augusta Gidilla Quintavalle, Parmigianino had the opportunity in the frescoes of Santa Maria della Stekkata "to combine the various facets of his interests, which only outwardly opposed each other: classicism and the Renaissance , alchemical dreams of gold and scientific research, the transformation of the real world and naturalistic observation, stillness and movement. " For failure to fulfill the order on time he was sentenced to imprisonment (1539), released on bail, fled from Parma to the town of Casalmaggiore. He died there. According to Vasari, the cause of his death was poisoning with substances used in alchemical experiments - “Mercury, or mercury”. Parmigianino wished to be buried "naked with an archpastoral cross on his chest." His grave is in the church of the servitude brothers La Fontana near Casalmaggiore.

Graphics

Parmigianino's experiments in graphics are inextricably linked with his painting. Each painting was preceded by numerous preparatory drawings, where he persistently sought to achieve the ideal. According to S. Blanc: “One and the same posture or movement is pondered and fixed, studied again and again ... It is felt that the artist has a model, but it is open only to his inner gaze. And in accordance with this ideal model, he corrects those natural flaws that could have a real nature, stored in his memory ” ^[4] . Parmigianino was credited with the invention of the technique of engraving using etching ( etching ). In fact, he was not the discoverer of this technique, but he did a lot to reveal its artistic capabilities.

Manner

Based on the models developed by Raphael, but passed through the work of Correggio, Francesco Parmigianino at the same time sought to get away from these samples with the help of various tricks. His figures are characterized by distorted proportions and spiral twist poses. Individual parts of the body are deliberately elongated (“Madonna with a Long Neck”). Like the rest of the mannerist painters, he deliberately sought to arouse surprise, embarrassment, amazement and irritation with his works. This was a peculiarity of his manner, leading the viewer away from the clear classical examples of the Renaissance.

According to the literary tradition that comes from Vasari , it is customary to talk about Parmigianino as a person who is constantly immersed in mystical thoughts and completely surrendered to alchemy . The artist’s self-portrait, written in the last year of his life, where Parmigianino appears deeply thoughtful and prematurely aged, confirms the words of his biographer. Vasari pays tribute to the mastery of Parmigianino, but writes with great regret about his passion and recreates the painter’s sad ending as follows:

In the end, Francesco, still fascinated by his alchemy, turned, like all the others, once obsessed with her, from a graceful and pleasant man into a bearded man, with long and disheveled hair, almost wild, not at all what he used to be, and after he sank so down and became unsociable and gloomy, he suffered a severe fever and severe diarrhea, as a result of which, after a few days, he moved to a better life, thereby putting an end to the burdens of this world in which he knew nothing but longing and docs.

- Biographies of the most famous painters

In Russia in 2008, two paintings by the master were shown. In the State Hermitage , the painting “The Conversion of Saul” ( [1] ) was demonstrated, in the State Museum of Fine Arts named after A. S. Pushkin - a portrait of Antey ( [2] (unavailable link) ).

• S. Zuffy. Great atlas of painting. - M .: Olma-Press, 2002 .-- S. 132-134. - 431 p. - ISBN 5-224-03922-3 .
• F. Dzery . Parmigianino. Madonna with a long neck. - M .: White City. - 48 p. - (One Hundred Great Pictures). - 5,000 copies. - ISBN 5-7793-0475-0 .

• Works in museums of the world
• [3]
• Parmigianino and alchemy (it.)
• Tolstova Anna. Unidentified aesthetic object: "Anthea" Parmigianino in the Pushkin Museum im. Pushkin // Newspaper Kommersant, issue of May 14, 2008.