The Marriage of the Virgin

Engraving, 1525-1526 circa, inscribed lower left: Iacobus carario fecit; center: fracs parms i ventor. 

Example of the first state of three described by M. Cirillo Archer. A fine impression, printed on contemporary laid paper, trimmed to the borderline, orizontal paper fold in the middle, restoration - about 7 mm - perfectly executed on the figure of the boy in the lower left, otherwise in excellent condition.

On the back ancient handwritten note of possession by Nathaniel Smith (Lugt 2296-2298): Blackburn Sale 1786 and signed Smith. 

′Soon after the young artist arrived in Rome in late 1524, Parmigianino's "beautiful and graceful manner" and the "perfect excellence of his drawing" were acknowledged, and he began to receive commissions for altarpieces and portraits." He, in turn, studied the works of Raphael "in supreme veneration" and clearly apprehended the value of Raphael's collaboration with Marcantonio Raimondi and other printmakers. Parmigianino similarly collaborated with Jacopo Caraglio until both fled the city following the Sack of Rome in 1527. Caraglio engraved four of Parmigianino's compositions, of which Marriage of the Virgin is the earliest. Attempts have been made to link this composition to various commissions, but none is wholly convincing.

However, the existence of a detailed drawing (Chatsworth, U. K., n. 339) suggests either that it was created for an otherwise undocumented project or that it was created as a model for the engraver. If the latter is the case, then the slight differences between drawing and print may reveal Caraglio's contribution to their joint enterprise. Both drawing and engraving reflect the elegant draftsmanship that earned Parmigianino praise from the Venetian critic Lodovico Dolce, who asserted, "every design of his that is preserved on paper brings astonishment to the eyes of the admirer." 

Giorgio Vasari observes that a characteristic of Parmigianino's compositions is that they are "extraordinary in invention," and, although Marriage of the Virgin reveals influences from Albrecht Dürer in the disposition of bride, groom, and high priest, as well as from Rosso Fiorentino and from Michelangelo - specifically in the saint and sibyl seated in the foreground-  this composition is both inventive and novel. In particular, spatial relationships within the narrow composition are distinctly odd, as is its extreme verticality. The immense laps of the seated foreground figures serve as an enclosing foundation, supporting a structure that suggests little depth of field; in direct contrast, however, the difference in scale between the women in the foreground and the men conversing in the center suggests considerable spatial recession.

Above the seated women, not flower, conduct the eye upward toward the fictive apse where the marriage of Joseph to Mary is being performed. In their eagerness to witness the event, spectators crowd uncomfortably in the narrow aisle between the columns and wall. The spatial ambiguities are exaggerated by the flow of light that enters from the left to create dramatic high- lights and shadows. On the one hand, the light enhances the three-dimensional modeling of the individual figures, defined by Caraglio's carefully modulated hatching and cross-hatching. On the other hand, variegated illumination simultaneously flattens the entire composition because it flows uniformly over the figures, faceting the surface with no differentiation between foreground figures and those ostensibly in the background. As a result, the figures and architecture appear substantial, but the whole assumes a scintillating, visionary quality. ′ (cf. B. Barryte, Renaissance Impressions, p. 88, n. 14).

Bibliografia

B. Barryte, Renaissance Impressions, p. 88, n. 14; Bartsch, XV.66.1; TIB, 2802.001, I/III; Parmigianino tradotto n. 70.