Volume 51, Number 6 · April 8, 2004
The Visionary
By Andrew Butterfield
The Art of Parmigianino
Catalog of the exhibition by David Franklin, with an essay by David Ekserdjian
an exhibition at the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa,October 3, 2003–January 4, 2004, and the Frick Collection, New York, January 27–April 18, 2004.
Yale University Press/National Gallery of Canada, 289 pp., $60.00; $49.95 (paper)
That Parmigianino ranks among the great draftsmen of the Renaissance is an assessment first made by his contemporaries in the sixteenth century. Giorgio Vasari began his life of the painter with praise for the 'gracious virtue of his drawings,' and said he was 'consecrated by Nature at birth to drawing.' Another contemporary critic, Lodovico Dolce, wrote that 'every design of his preserved on paper astonishes the eyes.' At a time when the market for drawings was still in its infancy, Parmigianino's designs were collected by artists and connoisseurs alike. Passion for them even inspired crime. During the sack of Rome in 1527, German soldiers forced Parmigianino to ransom his life with drawings; and a few years later in Bologna, a cache of his designs was stolen, an early instance of theft in the modern history of art.
Review, 3462 words
To read the full text of this piece, please choose one of the following options:
|
If you are already a subscriber to the Review's electronic edition, please sign in: |
To subscribe to the electronic edition, please press the button below. |
To purchase access to this article for $3, please press the button below. |