拍品專文
In 1527, at the time of the Sack of Rome, Parmigianino's place of work was invaded by a group of German soldiers, one of whom protected him in exchange for drawings. The aftermath of the Sack offered few opportunities for artists in the Eternal City, and most of them left. Parmigianino moved to Bologna, where he appears to have remained until 1530, when he returned to his native Parma. During the three years he stayed in Bologna, Parmigianino divided his time - entirely conventionally - between large-scale public commissions, mostly for altarpieces, and small-scale productions intended for more intimate contexts.
The present Madonna and Child, which was first published as recently as 1992 (Gould, op.cit., p. 135), but recognised as an autograph work by Parmigianino some years before, is one such picture. There are sound stylistic reasons to date it to the artist's Bolognese period, not least the highly distinctive hot pink flesh-tones, but in addition the type of the Christ Child is identical to his counterparts in two other works of these years, and His pose is closely related to theirs too. The first of these pictures is the Madonna of Saint Margaret in the Pinacoteca Nazionale at Bologna, which was in existence by August 1529 (D. Ekserdjian, Parmigianino's 'Madonna of St. Margaret', The Burlington Magazine, CXXV, 966, 1983, pp. 542-6), while the second is the unfinished Madonna and Child from the Princes Gate Collection in the Courtauld Institute, which is almost certainly the one acquired by Vasari in Bologna and referred to by him in his biography of Parmigianino (Vasari-Milanesi, V, pp. 228-9). It seems clear that during these years Parmigianino was in the habit of using real children as his models, and it may be that all three appearances of this highly distinctive bald and dolichocephalic baby were derived from drawings made at a single session. Similarly, the golden-ringletted and rather older infant who was used for the Christ Child in the Madonna della Rosa, Dresden, Gemäldegalerie, reappears in the same role in the Madonna di San Zaccaria in the Uffizi.
The panel on which the present picture is painted was enlarged in the eighteenth century, possibly for the first Lord Scarsdale, but has now been restored to its original dimensions. The bold cutting of the forms and the tight framing of the image is entirely deliberate, as indeed is the contrast between the hieratic, stately Virgin, who occupies the centre of the composition, and her energetic, almost fidgety Son. Another striking feature of the work is the exceptional freedom of the brushstrokes, which appear to have involved the artist in applying technical solutions explored in preparatory drawings on the one hand, and in altarpieces designed to be seen at a distance on the other, to paintings intended for a domestic setting. The paint surface is not unfinished, but it is not uniform either, and Parmigianino would always have meant the Child's shadowy right hand toying with the Virgin's veil to be less visible than the left one so prominently placed and highlit on her breast. For Parmigianino at this date, different degrees of precision in handling could be explored in different works that were being executed concurrently, and it is even possible that financial considerations played a part. As Gould (1992, loc. cit.) has stressed, small-scale pictures, especially ones with subjects whose appeal was universal, need not always have been commissioned. Indeed, most artists must have combined off-the-peg with made-to-measure production, and maintained quite a considerable stock of unsold paintings. If, as is generally supposed, a considerable proportion of the works by Parmigianino in the collection of the Cavaliere Francesco Baiardo represented the artist's workshop property at the time of his death (see A.E. Popham, The Baiardo Inventory, in Studies in Renaissance and Baroque Art Presented to Anthony Blunt on his 60th Birthday, London and New York, 1967, pp. 26-9) then this was certainly true of him. In that case, looser, sketchier brushwork, which was presumably less time-consuming, may also have resulted in the emergence of less expensive, but nevertheless finished works of art.
The present Madonna and Child, which was first published as recently as 1992 (Gould, op.cit., p. 135), but recognised as an autograph work by Parmigianino some years before, is one such picture. There are sound stylistic reasons to date it to the artist's Bolognese period, not least the highly distinctive hot pink flesh-tones, but in addition the type of the Christ Child is identical to his counterparts in two other works of these years, and His pose is closely related to theirs too. The first of these pictures is the Madonna of Saint Margaret in the Pinacoteca Nazionale at Bologna, which was in existence by August 1529 (D. Ekserdjian, Parmigianino's 'Madonna of St. Margaret', The Burlington Magazine, CXXV, 966, 1983, pp. 542-6), while the second is the unfinished Madonna and Child from the Princes Gate Collection in the Courtauld Institute, which is almost certainly the one acquired by Vasari in Bologna and referred to by him in his biography of Parmigianino (Vasari-Milanesi, V, pp. 228-9). It seems clear that during these years Parmigianino was in the habit of using real children as his models, and it may be that all three appearances of this highly distinctive bald and dolichocephalic baby were derived from drawings made at a single session. Similarly, the golden-ringletted and rather older infant who was used for the Christ Child in the Madonna della Rosa, Dresden, Gemäldegalerie, reappears in the same role in the Madonna di San Zaccaria in the Uffizi.
The panel on which the present picture is painted was enlarged in the eighteenth century, possibly for the first Lord Scarsdale, but has now been restored to its original dimensions. The bold cutting of the forms and the tight framing of the image is entirely deliberate, as indeed is the contrast between the hieratic, stately Virgin, who occupies the centre of the composition, and her energetic, almost fidgety Son. Another striking feature of the work is the exceptional freedom of the brushstrokes, which appear to have involved the artist in applying technical solutions explored in preparatory drawings on the one hand, and in altarpieces designed to be seen at a distance on the other, to paintings intended for a domestic setting. The paint surface is not unfinished, but it is not uniform either, and Parmigianino would always have meant the Child's shadowy right hand toying with the Virgin's veil to be less visible than the left one so prominently placed and highlit on her breast. For Parmigianino at this date, different degrees of precision in handling could be explored in different works that were being executed concurrently, and it is even possible that financial considerations played a part. As Gould (1992, loc. cit.) has stressed, small-scale pictures, especially ones with subjects whose appeal was universal, need not always have been commissioned. Indeed, most artists must have combined off-the-peg with made-to-measure production, and maintained quite a considerable stock of unsold paintings. If, as is generally supposed, a considerable proportion of the works by Parmigianino in the collection of the Cavaliere Francesco Baiardo represented the artist's workshop property at the time of his death (see A.E. Popham, The Baiardo Inventory, in Studies in Renaissance and Baroque Art Presented to Anthony Blunt on his 60th Birthday, London and New York, 1967, pp. 26-9) then this was certainly true of him. In that case, looser, sketchier brushwork, which was presumably less time-consuming, may also have resulted in the emergence of less expensive, but nevertheless finished works of art.