Diana and Actaeon

Diana and Actaeon
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Parmigianino, Diana and Actaeon, 1523

By ETHAN DOSKEY

Parmigianino, the Mannerist painter from Parma, Italy, got his start doing small commissions in his hometown for churches and in homes. This mural in the Castle of Fontanellato of Diana and Actaeon from Ovid's Metamorphoses is a prime example of the soon-to-be classic's early work. The painting covers the entire upper-half of the room, including the ceiling. It depicts the goddess Diana discovering Actaeon watching her bathe, and then turning him into a stag as consequence. Ironically, the story goes that Actaeon was next attacked by his own hunting dogs, who did not recognize their master. (Moral of the story: don't walk around in the woods or you may find a naked goddess, leading to your death?)

While the bodies and painting itself is not done with the upmost detail or precision, Parmigianino is crafting his own style that would later become "Mannerism." Later in the same year that he completed Diana and Actaeon, Parmigianino traveled to Rome to seek fame, which he did.

However, Parmigianino's short career was challenged by his inability to finish a commission after starting it. Instead of working on the canvas itself, he would sketch dozens of drawings in his notebook. Unsatisfied by his progress or the finished product, Parmigianino would rework and resketch the paintings until content with his art. Often this process took years, causing many patrons to find work elsewhere and give the commissions to another artist.

In one instance, Parmigianino was hired by a nobleman to paint his vault. Though, in classic Parmigianino fashion, he took his time and could not make any substantial progress whatsoever. As months went by, the patron grew frustrated by the painter's snail pace. Eventually, the aristocrat's patience expired, and he had Parmigianino arrested for taking too long.

A year after being jailed and then bailed out by a loyal patron and an architect, Parmigianino died in Casalmaggiore, Italy in recluse at the age of 37n. Today, few of his paintings of his survive because of their untraceability and the fact that Parmigianino completed but a handful works. Despite the small quantity of existing paintings, his style influenced other painters who would build off of what he started: Mannerism.

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Art History Hotties: Portrait of Pier Maria Rossi di San Secondo

Parmigianino
Parmigianino, Portrait of Pier Maria Rossi di San Secondo, 1535-1539

By Bhux

The hottie on the left is the primary painting of focus. While Mrs. Maria Rossi di San Secondo looks great, she's not packing heat like her hubby. While researching information on the portrait to the left, I discovered it was made as a pair to the piece on the right. The husband and wife, surrounded by their sons, lovingly gaze into each others eyes for all eternity. How cute, I naively thought as I prepared to move on and write about Pier's attractiveness. Suddenly, it clicked. I became Ace Ventura looking for the stolen Miami Dolphins bottle-nose dolphin, Snowflake, as I put the puzzle together by researching every lead extensively. This was not some innocent family portrait. Only when pasting both pictures into a Google Doc, sizing each painting equally, and using my Window 7's Snipping Tool, did the truth finally reveal itself to me. Pier's children ignorantly play around his wife's dress...except one. Following poor little Federico's line of vision, I discover he is transfixed on his father's... mid-section. But what exactly is going on with man's best friend in this painting? Knowing I couldn't leave my classmates as curious as I was, I dug deeper into Pier's mysterious bulge.

After having to delete my browser history multiple times, I finally learn that Pier is wearing a codpiece, a pouch that attaches to the crotch to extenuate pocket rockets. This was fashionable in 16th century Italy, and, sadly not as scandalous as I was hoping. Codpieces reached their peak in fashion during the spread of syphilis in the early 16th century because infected men had more room for bandages with it attached. Men also wore it as a sign of power and dominance. Men vied to have the most impressive codpiece. It even doubled as a coin purse for all your loose florins. However, what Pier used it for, only little Federico will ever know. Federico's shock, confusion, and curiosity will forever be captured in this seemingly innocent family portrait. 


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Madonna and Child with Angels and St. Jerome

Hillary Eib
Parmigianino, Madonna with Long Neck, 1540
This piece of work was unusual by the elongated figures in the painting. Madonna with the Long Neck is also known as Madonna and Child with Angels and St Jerome.  Many critics have analyzed Parmigianino’s Madonna with Long Neck  and called it controversial. Madonna is seated on a high standing pedestal. She’s holding the baby Jesus on her lap while clothed in beautiful looking robes. In the left of the picture, four angels crowd around the Madonna, looking peacefully on Christ.

Unlike other paintings of the Madonna, Parmigianino’s shows movement and a sense of abandon. The posture of the Madonna is carefree and relaxed. The Madonna does not have normal human body proportions. Her neck, shoulders, and fingers have all been elongated. Which makes them appear more elegant and graceful. The person viewing the painting is forced to look all around the painting because of every persons disproportional body. Even the architecture around the Madonna is out of proportion with the column that has no supporting structures behind it.

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Madonna With Long Neck

Madonna With Long Neck
Parmigianino, Madonna With Long Neck, 1534
Madonna With Long Neck, along with a few other equally dimensionally-confusing and anatomically-impossible paintings illustrate Mannerism perfectly. In Fleming's Arts and Ideas, Mannerism is summed up by the phrase "nothing new, no one great." The giants who were Raphael, Michelangelo, and Donatello (oh, I missed a turtle?) and da Vinci were gone, and the freshman painters who were left weren't too keen to follow those acts.

So what did they do instead? They painted biblical scenes, like this one, with a twist (or better, a tug). Here, Parmigianino overemphasizes the leg of the angel, the torso and upper leg of the Christ child, and, like the title gives away, Madonna's long neck. The exaggeration of limbs was a popular photoshop effect, as painters thought it increased the beauty of the body part being emphasized.

What do I think? I think this painting's been skewed just a liiiiitttlllee too much, leaving each figure too slim and too long. I think the column that's supposed to parallel Madonna's neck and give the vertical line rhythm is too far to the left, smooshing those poor angels into the corner. That was another characteristic of Mannerism, off-center subjects. Some paintings do it well, but this one, not so much.

And can we talk about the miniature person in the bottom right-hand corner? What is he even doing there? Well, it turns out, he was supposed to have company. Notice the disembodied foot next to the little guy, there was supposed to be at least one other figure there. Another clue to the painting's unfinished state is the row of painted bases for more columns directly behind our bite-sized prophet. If those columns had been finished, and the swirling blue skyscape behind it, I probably wouldn't cringe at this painting so much. The columns would increase depth and create a downward-sloping, three-dimensional chevron stretching from the angel's fingers in the top left corner, to Madonna's shiny knee, and out into the void aided by those hypothetical columns. The composition would feel more angel-friendly, at the least.

Although I still think that column is too short...

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