parmigianino

[lobelia321]

I went to the National Gallery in London today, with the sons (we also visited our friends, the pigeons). And I saw this painting! I'd been looking for this painting for years! I saw it ages ago and fell in love with it but misremembered its location as the Wallace Collection. But when I scoured the Wallace again from top to bottom, I couldn't find it anywhere. And here it was, in the National Gallery!

Parmigianino, The Mystical Marriage of St Catherine, 1527-31



Isn't it just gorgeous? I love the long necks of the women, the ethereal, otherworldly quality of the colours, the wispiness of the paint application, the weirdness of Joseph's head jutting into the picture at bottom left. It's a Mannerist painting, and Mannerism is so weird and wonderful. Bronzino was a Mannerist (I once had a Bronzino icon; I might revive it, now that I've got endless icon supply), and Pontormo, another painter of swoonsome youths.

This digital pic doesn't do justice to the original (well, no digital pics do). The actual painting is quite small and simply beautiful. I'll have to go back without t'sons because they won't countenance lingering before any painting for more than 3 nanoseconds -- unless it be a picture of Holofernes's headless neck spouting blood or a dragon being gutted by St George in a particularly gory manner.

Comments

Gorgeous!

[thamiris.livejournal.com]

His Catherine reminds me of Beatrice of Burgundy in Titian's The Marriage of Frederick Barbarossa and Beatrice of Burgundy. Comparing the two, I'm struck by some of the differences, especially in the spouses. In the Titian, the groom is an adult male whose his head appears larger than the bride's, his hands as well, while he wears darker, sronger colours, so, while she's elevated above him, he conveys a sense of strength, power, and dignity. In the Parmigianino, the groom is the infant Christ, who doesn't convey the mini-man sense that you see in some paintings; instead, he's very much a young boy, looking to his mother for...confirmation? In adoration?

Mary seems more the groom here than he does, and with Joseph relegated to the corner the painting highlights the relationship between the women, with marriage represented more as an expression of female solidarity and perhaps power than as a more conventional Pauline union.

In any case, it's lovely!

Re: Gorgeous!

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Oh, nice pic rec! There seem to be two or so versions of the Barbarossa painting and one of them (this one below) I could have seen in the National Gallery today! (If I'd known to look for it.) It's by Tiepolo, btw, not Titian, as I discovered when googling.



You are right about the female solidarity! Interesting! And then there's that intriguing pair of figures in the doorway at the back.

[sophrosyne31.livejournal.com]

That's gorgeous. I love the Mannerists' way with arms - they kind of float around but are not insubstantial. Just eloquent.

...Following a random Mannerist train of thought, do you know a n artist called Francesco Furini? *points at icon* I can only find a few paintings online, but he's wonderful. This painting of Santa Lucia is so unusual, with her back turned and so much chiarascuro. Well. Erm, why am I telling you this?

*rambles off*

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

I've never heard of Furini but your icon is beautiful!! That neck and those shoulders. Somehow an almost Japanese aesthetic.

[sophrosyne31.livejournal.com]

ohhh, i think you might like Furini. I find his flesh tones really sumptuous and his compositions unusual - with all the Mannerist flair, but without some of the more hysterical distortions.

The Santa Lucia blew me away when I saw it in the Palazzo Spada in Rome. So restrained! I darkened the tones in the icon, so it might be a bit unclear.

Anyway, have a look at these when you get back. Hope the holiday is holiday-ish!

http://images.google.com.au/images?q=furini%2C+francesco&hl=en&btnG=Google+Search

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

I had a look at those Furinis: I love them! I'd never heard of this painter. What a discovery! Now I will have to travel to Madrid, Oslo, Budapest and Rome to see his paintings. That one which is your icon is evil! I hadn't noticed the tray with eyes which identifies the woman as St Lucia and which also puts a horrifying spin on that lovely rear view of her because the front view would reveal her gouged-out eye sockets. It is a wonderful and spine-tingling picture, in true Baroque horror manner. And I love the Adonis and Venus one, and the Hylas one, and Lot's daughters, wow!

[sophrosyne31.livejournal.com]

oh i'm so gleeful you liked them! i really would like to track more of his work and find more of his life, but he seems very obscure, from my tentative internet searches. i'm sure there's a novel in there somewhere.

my god, i'd never noticed the trayful of eyes! i mean, i knew it was st lucy, and eyes-gouged-out etc, but i didn't realise she was HOLDING THEM. ewwww. beautiful brown eyes. the turned-away face gives all the tension, because of the horror, of course. she's so lovely and creamy from the back.

if you do go see any other furinis in your travels, let me know. i'm really quite rapturously in love with him.

ah, art-squee. there's not enough of it in my journal.