: Born in Parma in 1503 and known as Parmigianino after his native
city, Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola lived only 37 years, yet
the quantity, variety and sheer beauty of the drawings he
produced during that brief time came to exemplify the art of
draftsmanship. To celebrate the 500th anniversary of
Parmigianino, The Frick Collection has mounted an impressive
exhibition, "A Beautiful and Gracious Manner: The Art of
Parmigianino," organized by the National Gallery of Canada,
Ottawa. On view through April 18, the Frick will be its only stop
in the United States.
Fifty-one drawings spanning the artist's career and illustrating
the genius of his achievement are the focal point of the
exhibition. The sheets are accompanied by seven jewel-like oil
paintings, similar in scale and refinement, that evoke the
correspondences between Parmigianino's fluent handling of oil and
the graphic media. Parmigianino was the first Italian painter to
experiment with printmaking, and the dozen prints included in the
exhibition feature his pioneering etchings that were so highly
prized by Renaissance collectors for their inimitable
choreography of line.
The exhibition also commemorates Parmigianino's gifts as a
portraitist by presenting swiftly executed sketches and two works
in oil, which - like all his portraits - are notable for their
acutely observed detail and enigmatic psychology.
Almost 1,000 drawings by this prolific artist survive, and his
graphic output represents the range of Renaissance practice in
all its forms and media. Less than 20 years after his death, the
humanist Ludovico Dolce stated, "Parmigianino endowed his
creations with a certain beauty which makes whoever looks at them
fall in love with them. So delicate and accurate was his
draftsmanship that every drawing of his ... astonishes the eyes
of the beholder.
