As part of our bicentenary celebrations, the National Gallery in London is pleased to announce the return to public viewing of Parmigianino‘s Madonna and Child with Saints (1526-1527), after a decade of absence and careful conservative treatment.
A masterpiece of 16th-century Italian painting, the work was donated to the Gallery in 1826, just two years after its foundation.
Also known as The Vision of St. Jerome, a title acquired in the 19th century due to the unusual depiction of the seemingly sleeping saint, the altar will be exhibited for the first time alongside a selection of the most important preparatory drawings, tracing the development of the unique composition of Parmigianino.
Parmigianino. The Madonna and Child with Saints John the Baptist and Jerome. 1526-7. Oil on poplar, 342.9 × 148.6 cm. © The National Gallery, London. Presented by the Directors of the British Institution, 1826
Thanks to generous loans from notable national and international collections, this exhibition offers visitors a rare opportunity to follow the artist’s creative process, from initial conceptual ideas to final drawings, allowing you to enter the mind of one of the world’s most innovative artists. Renaissance.
Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola (1503-1540), better known as Parmigianino, was named in honor of his hometown, Parma, in northern Italy. Born into a family of painters, already in his twenties Parmigianino was recognized as a precocious talent, attracting the attention of wealthy and cultured patrons. His growing fame as an artist preceded his arrival in Rome, around May 1524, where he was personally welcomed by Pope Clement VII. At that time, Rome was dominated by Raphael’s serene and classicizing style, characterized by an idealized beauty. The grace, ingenuity and refinement of execution evident in Parmigianino’s early works led him to be acclaimed as a ‘Raphael reborn’.
The Madonna and Child with Saints was painted by Parmigianino when he was just 23 years old, during his brief Roman period from 1524 to 1527. It was commissioned by a noble patron, Maria Bufalini, as an altarpiece for a chapel in the church of San Salvatore in Lauro, an important religious complex in the heart of the city. This commission represented a great opportunity for the young artist at a crucial moment in his career. However, the painting was never installed in the church for which it was intended.
According to Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574), Parmigianino was working on this altarpiece in 1527, at the beginning of the disastrous Sack of Rome. When Charles V’s imperial troops broke into the artist’s studio, they were so amazed by the painting that they allowed Parmigianino to continue working. Eventually, the artist fled Rome and the painting was hidden for safety. It was recovered only much later by the patron’s heirs and transferred to the family church in Città di Castello, in central Italy.
Parmigianino’s Madonna demonstrates the breadth of influences he absorbed in Rome, from the art of Raphael and Michelangelo to ancient sculpture. However, more than just a compilation of the works of other artists, it reveals Parmigianino’s unique visionary approach to image-making.
Against streaming rays of light, a majestic Madonna in pink sits on a throne of billowing clouds. Her child, a blonde with curls, approaches us. Below them, the superhuman figure of John the Baptist fixes our gaze as his impossibly long arm directs us towards the holy mother and child above. Behind him, a sleeping Jerome appears strangely unaware of the divine apparition, reclining in a dense mass of roots and leaves.
Parmigianino was one of the most talented and prolific draftsmen of the 16th century. Nearly 1,000 drawings attributed to him survive today and, in number and technical achievement, he is second only to Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519). Parmigianino dedicated numerous drawings to the development of the Vision of St. Jerome, from atmospheric studies in velvet chalk to swirling pen-and-ink sketches. These reveal his exquisite drawing talent and extraordinary mastery across various media.
Recent conservation treatment has removed accumulated layers of old paint and touch-ups, revealing the lively quality of Parmigianino’s brushwork and rich colors. The painting’s new frame, created by the National Gallery’s Frames Department, was designed based on surviving contemporary examples and offers a glimpse of the painting’s original church setting.
His distinctive style, characterized by impossibly elongated figures and an air of sophistication combined with an unexpected subversion of space, paved the way for the development of the style later known as Mannerism. With its extremely vertical composition, lush brushwork and shimmering palette, this painting has amazed viewers for nearly 500 years. This exhibition is an opportunity to rediscover one of the great masterpieces of early Italian Mannerism, both for the public and for specialists.
The exhibition catalog provides an in-depth resource on the painting, compiled by the exhibition curators, with contributions from guests such as Aimee Ng, curator at the Frick Collection in New York, and Larry Keith, head of conservation and collection keeper at the National Gallery.
