Wednesday, January 11, 2012

On a day like today, Italian artist Parmigianino, was born (From ArtDaily.org)











Parmagianino, Antea(detail), 1531-4, Museo di Capodimonte, Naples



January11, 1503.-  




GirolamoFrancesco Maria Mazzola (11 January 1503 – 24 August 1540), also known as Francesco Mazzola or more commonly as Parmigianino (a nickname meaning"the little one from Parma") or sometimes "Parmigiano", wasa prominent Italian Mannerist painter and printmaker active in Florence, Rome, Bologna, andhis native city of Parma. His work is characterized by elongation of form and includes Vision of Saint Jerome(1527) and the Madonna with the LongNeck (1534). 










Parmagianino, Antea,1531-4, Museo di Capodimonte, Naples

 


NOTE:


Occasionally gazing at these images (and Antea’s gaze) today, I’m remindedhow astonished I was when I first saw Parmagianino’spaintings and how they still completely enthrall me.  One’s firstdose of Mannerism is a little bit like taking a new drug; you never thoughtthe world could look like that and then youthink, yes – the world should look like that alwaysThe drug then wearsoff.  With any luck, you reorder your senses and priorities and learn the history behind the image and the manner in which the image wascreated.  (Whythis way, rather than that way? How?)  You then re-view the work, seeing it anew and calmly. If and whenthe old feeling hits you, it’s like Bob Marleysaid: You feel no pain.








Parmagianino, Studyfor Madonna With The Long Neck, 1535, private collection (formerly part ofRobert Lebel collection, Paris)

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