The Artist
Francesco Mazzola, or Mazzuoli, known as the Parmigianino, was born in 1503 to an artist’s family in Parma. In fact his father and his uncles were good painters and it was with them that he made his first experiences as a painter. He was greatly influenced by Correggio in Parma: from the “Camera Picta” of Badessa Giovanna Piacenza of the Monastery of San Paolo (1519, the necessary antecedent for the fresco of Fontanellato) to the series of illustrations executed between 1520 and 1524 in the San Giovanni Evangelista’s Church. Here Parmigianino and Correggio met, when Francesco was working at the decoration of the lateral chapels representing Saint Bishops and Saint martyrs.
In that period Parmigianino was called by the Sanvitale family to come to Fontanellato, where he worked in the years 1523 and 1524, as his works represent his younger years.
In the second half of the 1524 he went to Rome to find freedom and a greater success that he couldn’t have in Parma. In “Life”, Vasari gave testimony of this describing a work of art of Parmigianino.
It is the “Self-portrait in the mirror” (today in the Museum of Historic Art in Vienna) that Parmigianino presented to Pope Clemente VII in order to obtain his patronage. Then it passed to Pietro Aretino, who was a great admirer of Parmigianino.
In 1527 the Sack of Rome was a tragic event for the Renaissance period as for the Post-Raphaelist generation of the Parmigianino, because the political and the religious utopia of the Renaissance period ended.
In 1527 Parmigianino went to Bologna (1527-1531) and worked a lot to many “cavalletto” paintings as the famous allegoric portrait of Charles V. Then he returned to Parma where he began working in the Church of “Santa Maria della Steccata” where he had to decorate the “sottoarco” and the presbytery. In that period, according to the Vasari, he studied and practised the alchemy and neglected his works as a painter in the Steccata. In fact in 1539 the craftsmen of the church dismissed him and asked for his incarceration because his works began too late. So Parmigianino escaped to Casalmaggiore where he died in 1540 at 37 years old. Vasari wrote a testimony about Parmigianino’s death; the painter suffered a lot and died alone.

Reproductions:
Self-Portrait in the mirror
Self-Portrait with dog
Self-Portrait with Virgins of the Steccata
Self-Portrait