Parmigianino's Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror
I fell in love with this guy when I was thirteen years old. That happened in the library at Woodlands; I was wandering along pretty aimlessly and then I stopped to look through an art book, and then...there he was.
It was a self-portrait done on a wooden semi-sphere when he was twenty-one years old.
The colours were pale--not vivid or lifelike--as if the entire scene had been limned in quicksilver, the effect was to make it look as if it were a reflection of the painter in a mirror. it was absolutely breathtaking, one hand looming large at the edge of the picture and the face and the rest, body and fancy dress all drawn in, tiny, tiny, the parts of the image nearest us physically and yet shrunken and distant. It was a curious piece.
I still wonder now if the artwork had just been a small contrivance by the artist to show the pope his tricks with the brush or whether it ever meant anything deeper.
This is the poet John Ashbery's interpretation of it:
look for it on www.poemhunter.com--http://www.poemhunter.com/p/m/poem.asp?poet=12981&poem=182576
This is a short account of the life of Parmigianino:
Italian Mannerist painter and etcher (real name: Girolamo Francesco Mazzola), born in Parma, from which he takes his nickname. He was a precocious artist, and as early as 1522-23 painted accomplished frescoes in two chapels in S. Giovanni Evangelista, Parma, showing his admiration for Correggio, who had worked in the same church a year or two before. The originality and sophistication he displayed from the beginning, particularly his love of unusual spatial effects, is, however, most memorably seen in his Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror (1524, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna), in which Vasari said he looks 'so beautiful that he seemed an angel rather than a man'.
In 1524 Parmigianino moved to Rome, possibly via Florence, and his work became both grander and more graceful under the influence of Raphael and Michelangelo. The Vision of St Jerome (National Gallery, London, 1526-27) is his most important work of this time, showing the disturbing emotional intensity he created with his elongated forms, disjointed sense of space, chill lighting, and lascivious atmosphere.
Parmigianino left Rome after it was sacked by German troops in 1527 and moved to Bologna. In 1531 he returned to Parma and contracted to paint frescoes in Sta Maria della Steccata. He failed to complete the work, however, and was eventually imprisoned for breach of contract. Vasari says he neglected the work because he was infatuated with alchemy — 'he allowed his beard to grow long and disordered ... he neglected himself and grew melancholy and eccentric.' His later paintings show no falling off in his powers, however, and his work reaches its apotheosis in his celebrated Madonna of the Long Neck (Uffizi, Florence, c. 1535). The forms of the figures are extraordinarily elongated and tapering and the painting has a refinement and grace that place it among the archetypal works of Mannerism.
Parmigianino's range extended beyond religious works. He painted a highly erotic Cupid Carving his Bow (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, 1535), and was one of the subtlest portraitists of his age (two superb examples are in the Museo di Capodimonte, Naples). The landscape backgrounds to his religious works have a mysterious and visionary quality that influenced Niccolo dell' Abbate and through him French art. Parmigianino, whose draughtsmanship was exquisite, also made designs for engravings and chiaroscuro woodcuts and seems to have been the first Italian artist to produce original etchings from his own designs.
More here--Links:
http://www.haberarts.com/parma.htm:
An Era's Portrait in a Convex Mirror
John Haberin New York City
A Beautiful and Gracious Manner: The Art of Parmigianino
http://www.people.virginia.edu/~djr4r/parmigianino.html
www.hum.utah.edu/hgc/papers/blitch.pdf :
Blitch 1File type:PDF - Download PDF Reader... Ashbery uses formal poetic techniques at the level of the line in many ways ... the identity of Ashbery sometimes merges with that of Parmigianino. And because Parmigianino's ... www.hum.utah.edu/hgc/papers/blitch.pdf More pages from hum.utah.edu
http://www.d.umn.edu/~jjacobs1/utpictura/parm.htm:
Self-Portrait in a Convex MirrorAs Hollander notes in The Gazer's Spirit, in John Ashbery's long and complex poem. ".. ... in repose. It is what is. Sequestered . . . Self Portrait in a Convex Mirror. John Ashbery. Hollander also notes that "The ever-problematic gaze of the subject in self ... www.d.umn.edu/~jjacobs1/utpictura/parm.htm More pages from d.umn.edu
Now do me a favour...write me some comments.
It was a self-portrait done on a wooden semi-sphere when he was twenty-one years old.
The colours were pale--not vivid or lifelike--as if the entire scene had been limned in quicksilver, the effect was to make it look as if it were a reflection of the painter in a mirror. it was absolutely breathtaking, one hand looming large at the edge of the picture and the face and the rest, body and fancy dress all drawn in, tiny, tiny, the parts of the image nearest us physically and yet shrunken and distant. It was a curious piece.
I still wonder now if the artwork had just been a small contrivance by the artist to show the pope his tricks with the brush or whether it ever meant anything deeper.
This is the poet John Ashbery's interpretation of it:
look for it on www.poemhunter.com--http://www.poemhunter.com/p/m/poem.asp?poet=12981&poem=182576
This is a short account of the life of Parmigianino:
Italian Mannerist painter and etcher (real name: Girolamo Francesco Mazzola), born in Parma, from which he takes his nickname. He was a precocious artist, and as early as 1522-23 painted accomplished frescoes in two chapels in S. Giovanni Evangelista, Parma, showing his admiration for Correggio, who had worked in the same church a year or two before. The originality and sophistication he displayed from the beginning, particularly his love of unusual spatial effects, is, however, most memorably seen in his Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror (1524, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna), in which Vasari said he looks 'so beautiful that he seemed an angel rather than a man'.
In 1524 Parmigianino moved to Rome, possibly via Florence, and his work became both grander and more graceful under the influence of Raphael and Michelangelo. The Vision of St Jerome (National Gallery, London, 1526-27) is his most important work of this time, showing the disturbing emotional intensity he created with his elongated forms, disjointed sense of space, chill lighting, and lascivious atmosphere.
Parmigianino left Rome after it was sacked by German troops in 1527 and moved to Bologna. In 1531 he returned to Parma and contracted to paint frescoes in Sta Maria della Steccata. He failed to complete the work, however, and was eventually imprisoned for breach of contract. Vasari says he neglected the work because he was infatuated with alchemy — 'he allowed his beard to grow long and disordered ... he neglected himself and grew melancholy and eccentric.' His later paintings show no falling off in his powers, however, and his work reaches its apotheosis in his celebrated Madonna of the Long Neck (Uffizi, Florence, c. 1535). The forms of the figures are extraordinarily elongated and tapering and the painting has a refinement and grace that place it among the archetypal works of Mannerism.
Parmigianino's range extended beyond religious works. He painted a highly erotic Cupid Carving his Bow (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, 1535), and was one of the subtlest portraitists of his age (two superb examples are in the Museo di Capodimonte, Naples). The landscape backgrounds to his religious works have a mysterious and visionary quality that influenced Niccolo dell' Abbate and through him French art. Parmigianino, whose draughtsmanship was exquisite, also made designs for engravings and chiaroscuro woodcuts and seems to have been the first Italian artist to produce original etchings from his own designs.
More here--Links:
http://www.haberarts.com/parma.htm:
An Era's Portrait in a Convex Mirror
John Haberin New York City
A Beautiful and Gracious Manner: The Art of Parmigianino
http://www.people.virginia.edu/~djr4r/parmigianino.html
Art History at Loggia the Artist Parmigianino at a GlanceThe artist Parmigianino at a glance, with information about art books ... Parmigianino at a Glance. Self Portrait, by Parmigianino. artist Parmigianino. lived 1503-1540 ... www.loggia.com/art/artists/parmigianino.html More pages from loggia.com
A little bit on the poem:
www.hum.utah.edu/hgc/papers/blitch.pdf :
Blitch 1File type:PDF - Download PDF Reader... Ashbery uses formal poetic techniques at the level of the line in many ways ... the identity of Ashbery sometimes merges with that of Parmigianino. And because Parmigianino's ... www.hum.utah.edu/hgc/papers/blitch.pdf More pages from hum.utah.edu
Lead in the Looking Glass: A Lacanian Approach toJohn Ashbery's "Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror"
Jack Bedell
Jack Bedell
http://www.d.umn.edu/~jjacobs1/utpictura/parm.htm:
Self-Portrait in a Convex MirrorAs Hollander notes in The Gazer's Spirit, in John Ashbery's long and complex poem. ".. ... in repose. It is what is. Sequestered . . . Self Portrait in a Convex Mirror. John Ashbery. Hollander also notes that "The ever-problematic gaze of the subject in self ... www.d.umn.edu/~jjacobs1/utpictura/parm.htm More pages from d.umn.edu
Now do me a favour...write me some comments.
posted by fairypenguin at 5:10 AM
1 Comments:
you are so not 16 years old.... :)
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