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Francesco Maria Mazzola, called Il Parmigianino
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Description
Francesco Maria Mazzola, called Il Parmigianino
1503-1540
a youth leading a donkey in a landscape
Bears paraphe of the Abbe Desneux de la Noue (see Provenance), and numbering, lower left: XXXII, and inscriptions: Francesco Mazzuoli Parmigiano 1535, and (in a different hand): colligit Mo. de la Noue.
Pen and brown ink, heightened with white, on red prepared paper.
196 by 192mm.
Provenance:
Cavaliere Francesco Baiardo;
Marcantonio Cavalca;
Abbe Desneux de la Noue (L.3014);
Walter Hugelshofer, Zurich
Literature:
A.E. Popham, 'The Baiardo Inventory' in Studies in Renaissance and Baroque Art presented to Anthony Blunt, London 1967, p.28, illus. fig. 8;
A.E. Popham, Catalogue of the Drawings of Parmigianino, New Haven and London 1971, vol.i, p.228, cat.798, illus. plate 297.
According to Popham (op.cit., 1971) the style of this drawing indicates that it was executed during Parmigianino's Roman period, and it is particularly close to that of a sheet of studies for a St. John the Baptist preaching, in the British Museum (Popham, op.cit., 1971, cat.184 recto; pl.107).
The drawings by Parmigianino owned by his patron, the Cavaliere Francesco Baiardo, were described by Vasari who examined the collection in Parma with Baiardo's heir, Marcantonio Cavalca. According to an inventory probably made at the time of the Cavaliere's death, the collection contained no fewer than 537 drawings, contained in seven albums. It is thought that Baiardo may have obtained the drawings as security in connection with Parmigianino's difficulties in completing the work in the Steccata. As Popham wrote in 1971 (see op. cit., vol.I, pp.29-30), this provenance is practically a guarantee of authenticity. At the time of the 1967 article he identified only three drawings as certainly from this source but he noted that the present study 'can with probability be identified'' as No.98 of the 'Primo Libro grande', 'un disegno d'uno giovane in piede tocco di penna et finito che tien' a mano un' asino '' By 1971, however, Popham (loc. cit.) listed the provenance of the drawing as 'Cavaliere Francesco Baiardo' without question.
It is not known how the drawing reached the Abbe Desneux de la Noue (died before 1657) but he too had a renowned collection of Parmigianino drawings which, according to Mariette, the Earl of Arundel tried unsuccessfully to acquire (see Popham op. cit., 1971, vol.I, p.36); many of them instead went to de la Noue's rival Jabach, and thereafter to the Louvre.
It has been suggested that the subject of the drawing might be The Flight into Egypt, but the figure is probably too youthful to be that of St. Joseph and it may, more likely, have an unidentified poetic or mythological source.
1503-1540
a youth leading a donkey in a landscape
Bears paraphe of the Abbe Desneux de la Noue (see Provenance), and numbering, lower left: XXXII, and inscriptions: Francesco Mazzuoli Parmigiano 1535, and (in a different hand): colligit Mo. de la Noue.
Pen and brown ink, heightened with white, on red prepared paper.
196 by 192mm.
Provenance:
Cavaliere Francesco Baiardo;
Marcantonio Cavalca;
Abbe Desneux de la Noue (L.3014);
Walter Hugelshofer, Zurich
Literature:
A.E. Popham, 'The Baiardo Inventory' in Studies in Renaissance and Baroque Art presented to Anthony Blunt, London 1967, p.28, illus. fig. 8;
A.E. Popham, Catalogue of the Drawings of Parmigianino, New Haven and London 1971, vol.i, p.228, cat.798, illus. plate 297.
According to Popham (op.cit., 1971) the style of this drawing indicates that it was executed during Parmigianino's Roman period, and it is particularly close to that of a sheet of studies for a St. John the Baptist preaching, in the British Museum (Popham, op.cit., 1971, cat.184 recto; pl.107).
The drawings by Parmigianino owned by his patron, the Cavaliere Francesco Baiardo, were described by Vasari who examined the collection in Parma with Baiardo's heir, Marcantonio Cavalca. According to an inventory probably made at the time of the Cavaliere's death, the collection contained no fewer than 537 drawings, contained in seven albums. It is thought that Baiardo may have obtained the drawings as security in connection with Parmigianino's difficulties in completing the work in the Steccata. As Popham wrote in 1971 (see op. cit., vol.I, pp.29-30), this provenance is practically a guarantee of authenticity. At the time of the 1967 article he identified only three drawings as certainly from this source but he noted that the present study 'can with probability be identified'' as No.98 of the 'Primo Libro grande', 'un disegno d'uno giovane in piede tocco di penna et finito che tien' a mano un' asino '' By 1971, however, Popham (loc. cit.) listed the provenance of the drawing as 'Cavaliere Francesco Baiardo' without question.
It is not known how the drawing reached the Abbe Desneux de la Noue (died before 1657) but he too had a renowned collection of Parmigianino drawings which, according to Mariette, the Earl of Arundel tried unsuccessfully to acquire (see Popham op. cit., 1971, vol.I, p.36); many of them instead went to de la Noue's rival Jabach, and thereafter to the Louvre.
It has been suggested that the subject of the drawing might be The Flight into Egypt, but the figure is probably too youthful to be that of St. Joseph and it may, more likely, have an unidentified poetic or mythological source.