Madonna and Child with St. Margareth, other Saints and an Angel

Etching and engraving, 1540/45.

After a subject by Parmigianino. Magnificent work, printed on contemporary laid paper without watermark, irregularly trimmed inside the platemark [cut at the bottom for bout 15 mm], signs of central fold, light abrasions, otherwise in good condition. This work, derives from the painting, nowadays in the Pinacoteca of Bologna, realized by Parmigianino in 1529 for the church and monastery of St. Margareth.

The engraving is listed among the works of Master IQV in Catherine Jenkins' recent catalog "Prints at the Court of Fontainebleau c. 1542-47" [IQV 16]. Previously it is described by Ippolitov (Parmigianinno, 2004) as an anonymous Italian master of the second half of the sixteenth century.

Jenkins describes only 8 known specimens of this engraving.

The composition depicts the Holy Virgin with the Child, St. Margareth, St. Benedict, St. Jerome and an Angel. Copertini reports only one engraving of the period deriving from Parmigianino’s work: an engraving by Giulio Bonasone, 1543 circa. Unlike the painting, the print shows different details: there is no landscape in the backgound, but a baldachin. This makes us presume that the print derives directly from the lost preparatory drawing.

Very rare.