print
- Museum number
- W,4.70
- Description
-
Virgin and Child with saints; at the right St John the Evangelist holds a chalice aloft in his left hand, the Christ Child in the centre on the Virgin's knee embraces the infant St John the Baptist, after Parmigianino
Chiaroscuro woodcut in three blocks in ochre and brown
- Production date
- 1544 (c)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 240 millimetres
-
Width: 184 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- This image of the Virgin and Child with St John the Baptist, St John the Evangelist, Mary Magdalene and two other saints is after a composition by Parmigianino, about which little is known. Popham believed that the image was perhaps an early design for the artist's 'Madonna of St Zachary' in the Uffizi (see Popham, 'Catalogue of the Drawings of Parmigianino', Vol. I, New Haven and London 1971, p. 16). A lithograph by Louise Bouteiller records a drawing of the subject formerly in the collection of Baron Dominique Vivant Denon, but it is difficult to tell from Bouteiller's print whether this lost work was an original by Parmigianino or a copy after him (ibid., p. 248, O.R. 21, and vol. II, pl.240).
The present chiaroscuro had the same printing history as the Master ND's 'Holy family' after Rosso (1874,0808.186). Both woodcuts are printed in similar inks, including a distinctive terracotta colour, and they exist in analogous second states in which the lightest tone blocks are replaced with a new block from which the monogram of the artist is carved out.
First state impressions in brown ink of the 'Holy family' such as W,4.27 and 'Virgin and Child with saints' in the Albertina (inv. DG2002/437 (in It. I/2)) display remarkably similar printing in their mid-tone blocks, the lines of which are smudged, indicating the use of particularly liquid ink. Jenkins 2017.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1799
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- W,4.70
