The Entombment

Etching, 1526-27 circa, unlettered.

A very good example, printed on contemporary laid paper, with unreadable watermark, trimmed close to platemark, generally in very good condition. Trimmed at the bottom and with an added white part (normally all the specimens are trimmed at the bottom).

“Giorgio Vasari was not exaggerating when he stated that Parmigianino "was liberally endowed with the richest gifts of a painter." Although his life was brief, Parmigianino was re- markably influential, inventive, and prolific, producing dozens of paintings and frescoes and hundreds of drawings. He must have been intrigued with prints, because he engaged with Jacopo Caraglio and Ugo da Carpi soon after moving to Rome in 1524, and he began experimenting with etching himself either just before or soon after fleeing to Bologna following the Sack of Rome in 1527. He made seventeen etchings, among which this second version of The Entombment is generall considered to be the finest. In this etching, Parmigianino has created a poignant and heroic rendering of an episode recounted in all four Gospels. Following Jesus's Crucifixion, Joseph of Arimathea secures the body for proper burial. As Parmigianino depicts this event, Mary Magdalene wraps her arm around Christ's torso, gently lower- ing him onto the Stone of Unction, before which plants grow suggesting the garden mentioned in John 38:41. On the right Mary swoons, her posture echoing her pose in Parmigianino's Annunciation (app. 378). Christ's posture is significantly ambiguous: although we know he is dead, his body seems tensed as if he is also about to rise. Parmigianino adds an uplifting note by portraying Joseph of Arimathea stepping boldly forward, elevating the crown of thorns like a wreath of honor. In an unusual addition, we are perhaps offered a glance at the moment of betrayal, for over Joseph's arm we see two nefarious figures sharing a secret. Between the two Marys, three apostles discuss this encounter, while John, on the far right, swivels his head, his expression one of dismay at what he is witnessing. Parmigianino tells his story with intensity but delicately Forms are only sketchily outlined and volumes are merely suggested by patches of open cross-hatching. The paper gleams between the fine networks of line, resulting in an evanescent vision seen through a luminous atmosphere” (cfr. Bernard Barryte, Myth, Allegory and Faith, p. 450).

According with the Mistrali catalogue this is an example of the second state: "Some retouches have been made to the plate, the most noticeable being the lenghtening, with an extremely fine drypoint stroke, of the lines forming the shading of the thigh and calf of Christ'r right leg. Surprisingly, the second state is rarer tha the first" (cfr. E. Mistrali, Parmigianino Incisore, p. 102, n. 12).

A very good example of this important Parmigianinoìs work.

Bibliografia: Vasari 1963, 3:79; Oberhuber 1963a; Sopher and Lazzaro-Bruno 1978, 40-41, no. 52: Davis 1988, 104-05, no 34: Reed and Wallace 1989, 13-16: Landau and Parshall 1994, 269; Oberhuber and Gnann 1999, 340, no. 248; Mussini and De Rubeis 2003, 46-47, no. 5; Schianchi and Ferino-Pagden 2003, 331, no. 2.4.2; Gnann 2007a, 35-38; Kárpáti 2009, 79-83; Barryte, n. 82, p. 450.