Memoirs of the early Italian painters / by Anna Jameson; thoroughly revised and in part rewritten by Estelle M. Hurll.
- Anna Brownell Jameson
- Date:
- 1899
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Memoirs of the early Italian painters / by Anna Jameson; thoroughly revised and in part rewritten by Estelle M. Hurll. Source: Wellcome Collection.
273/335 page 229
![PARMIGIANO Born 1503,i Died 1540 Francesco Mazzola, or Mazzuoli, called Parmigiano, and, by the Italians, II Parmigianino (to express by this endearing diminutive the love as well as the admiration he in- spired even from his boyhood), was a native of Parma, born on the 11th of January, 1503. He had two uncles who were painters, and by them he was early initiated into some know- ledge of designing, though he could have owed little else to them, both being very mediocre artists. Endowed with a most precocious genius, ardent in every pursuit, he studied indefa- tigably, and at the age of fourteen he produced a picture of the Baptism of Christ, wonderful for a boy of his age, exhibit- ing even thus early much of that easy grace which he is sup- posed to have learned from Correggio; but Correggio had not then visited Parma. When he arrived there four years after- wards, for the purpose of painting the cupola of San Giovanni, Francesco, then only eighteen, was selected as one of his assist- ants, and he took this opportunity of imbuing his mind with a style which certainly had much analogy with his own taste and character: Parmigiano, however, had too much genius, too much ambition, to follow in the footsteps of another, however great. Though not great enough himself to be first in that age of greatness, yet, had his rivals and contemporaries been less than giants, he must have overtopped them all; as it was, feeling the impossibility of rising above such men as Michael Angelo, Raphael, Correggio, yet feeling also the consciousness of his own power, he endeavored to be original by combining what has not yet been harmonized in nature, therefore could hardly succeed in Art — the grand drawing of Michael Angelo, the antique grace of Raphael, and the melting tones and sweet- ness of Correggio. Perhaps, had he been satisfied to look at 1 [The date 1503 is according to the Register; according to the present mode of reckoning it is 1504. Vasari also gives 1504.]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24877888_0273.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
