On Beautiful Women, Parmigianino
On BeautifulWomen, Parmigianino,Petrarchismo, and the VernacularStyle ElizabethCropper Among PietroTesta's notes on painting,which were unsys- Finallyon this side of the sheet Testa shows the back of tematicallycollected after his deathin 1650, is one foliodedi- the neck, which mustbe rosyand white and not too deeply catedto "Particolariperfetioni che fannola donnabellissima" furrowedby the line of the spine. (Figs. 1 and 2).1 It is devoted, as the heading indicates, The diagrammaticnature of the marginalsketches makes it to the artist'sdefinitions of thosefeatures that render a woman quiteclear that they werenot intendedto be perfectacademic mostbeautiful. The notes areunusually clear and precise, and models,nor were they drawnfrom life. They werebrief aids in the marginnext to the writtendescription of eachparticular to Testa'sunderstanding, to help him visualizethe contents featureTesta drew a smallillustrative sketch. The rectoof the of the noteshe wastaking-notes thatwere not hisown formu- sheet (Fig. 1) is concernedwith qualitiesof the head and lationof the idealfemale beauty, but that he madeas he read shoulders.Testa required that the hairbe long, fine, blonde, Agnolo Firenzuola'sDialogo delle bellezze delle donne.2 This and knottedsimply. For the browhe madea diagramof two book, completedin 1542, a centurybefore Testa readit, it- squares,representing its correctwide proportions.In the left self drawsupon the visionsof manyearlier writers, and it is squarehe showshow the browshould curve in an arctowards probablythe most completeexposition of the beautyof the the top. The eyebrowsare to be dark,and they too should ideal woman among the multitude of sixteenth-century curve in perfectarches that tapergently towardsthe ends. treatmentsof the theme, beingconcerned not only with her Beautifuleyes are largeand prominent,oval in shape, and perfectfeatures, but also with her colors, proportions,and blue or dark chestnut in color.
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