CIRCLE OF GIROLAMO FRANCESCO MARIA MAZZOLA, CALLED PARMIGIANINO | THE REST ON THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT

Probably Abbot Arcangelo Cella (according to Rossi, in Literature); 

Possibly, Avvocato Giolioli, Milan, by 1950 (see Freedberg 1950, in Literature);

Private collection.

Possibly, S.J. Freedberg, Parmigianino: His works in Painting, Cambridge 1950, p. 166, note 57 (possibly the copy listed in the collection of Avvocato Giolioli, Milan);

P. Rossi, L'opera completa del Parmigianino, Milan 1980, pp. 89-90, cat. no. 16, reproduced fig. 16 and plate X (as Parmigianino);

M. Di Giampaolo, Parmigianino, catalogo completo, Florence 1991, p. 31, under cat. no. 6;

C. Gould, Parmigianino, New York and London 1994, p. 187 (as another version);

S.J. Freedberg, "Parmigianino Problems in the Exhibition (and related matters)," in Emilian Painting of the 16th and 17th Centuries, A Symposium, Bologna 1987, p. 39;

S.J. Freedberg, "Il Parmigianino," in La Pittura in Emilia e in Romagna. Il Cinquecento, Milan 1996, pp. 78-79;

M.C. Chiusa, Parmigianino, Milan 2001, p. 131;

M. Vaccaro, Parmigianino: The Paintings, Turin 2002, p. 218, catl. no. A4 (as Attributed to Parmigianino).  

Of slightly smaller dimensions, this panel compares closely to Parmigianino's Rest on the Flight into Egypt, formerly in the collections of Sir Thomas Lawrence, Sir Francis Cook, and Count Seilern, but today preserved in the Courtauld Gallery, London.¹ Although first published by Rossi in 1980 as the prime version of the two, the present example is most probably by an anonymous artist active in the circle of Parmigianino.  

1. Oil on panel, 43.1 by 47.3 cm, dated circa 1521-1523, London, Courtauld Institute Galleries, inv. no. P.1978.PG.308.