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A Classical Source for a Note on the History of The Originalveröffentlichung in: Source : notes in the history of art 19 (1999), Nr. 1, S. 13-19 A CLASSICAL SOURCE FOR A DRAWING BY PARMIGIANINO: A NOTE ON THE HISTORY OF THE FLORENTINE NIOBID Michael Thimann The problem of Parmigianino’s response to Rome in 1527, Parmigianino resided in the classical world in his drawings has yet Bologna until 1531 and was the leading to be given a detailed analysis.1 Although contemporary painter there; he brought a rarely exhibiting an antiquarian’s exacti­ “vero uso del gratioso, et Eccellente di- tude for detail, a number of the artist’s pignere, et dissegnare” to an area seen by drawings illustrate his response to antiqui­ contemporaries as artistically provincial.6 ty, however. With reference to those draw­ Vasari asserts that Parmigianino’s first ings that draw their inspiration from classi­ work to be completed in Bologna—around cal examples, I would like to offer some 1527/28—was the “Paia di San Rocco”in new insights. San Petronio for the former chapel of the In the second edition of Vasari’s Vite Bonsignori family.7 This work, a personal (1568), we learn of the initial distinguished votive picture of its patron, Baldassare or reception of the young Parmigianino as a Fabrizio da Milano, ended up in the private worthy descendant of Raphael upon chapel in the wake of the plague of 1527.8 Parmigianino’s visit to the court of Cle­ In connection with the altar picture, a num­ ment VII in Rome where he stayed from ber of sketches exist and have already been 1524 to 1527.2 As recorded by Vasari, the the object of art-historical analysis.9 The intentions of the artist, a native of Parma, in genesis of the sketches of the saintly pro­ going to Rome may be characteristic of the tector against the plague, Saint Roch, who time: “Ma tomando aFrancesco, egli stu- bears the traditional wound on the upper diando in Roma voile vedere tutte le cose thigh, a result of the plague,10 shows, in the antiche e modeme cosi di scultura come di case of the altarpiece by Parmigianino, the pittura che erano in quella citta; ma in transformation from a standing to a kneel­ somma venerazzione ebbe particolarmente ing figure. quelle di Michelagnolo Buonarotti e di A sheet worked on both sides in pen and Raffaello da Urbino.”3 Thus, according to brown ink, located in the Louvre, casts Vasari, the young Parmigianino was influ­ light on both the form and content of the enced by the modem maniera of Raphael new conception that followed a series of and Michelangelo as well as the sculptures sketches for a standing figure.11 On the of antiquity.4 sheet’s initially executed verso (Fig. 1), Unfortunately, the biographical particu­ which is to be the focal point of this lars of Parmigianino’s trip to Rome as well inquiry, the saint is kneeling on his right as his drawing activity, which encompasses knee.He leans with the right upper half of his study of antiquity, continues to elude his body on a stone. A swiftly sketched us.5 Following his flight after the sack of greyhound stands in the foreground. The 14 Fig. 1 Parmigianino, study for Saint Roch, verso. 20 x 14.8 cm. Louvre, Paris 15 saint’s left leg is spread out away from his of Niobids was discovered in 1583 on the body so that only the ball of his left foot Esquiline Hill in Rome.13 touches the ground. With the gesture of his Because contemporary responses to the left hand, Saint Roch directs attention to curious figure were infrequent, artistic the darkened plague-boil as the sourceof reproductions were also rare. A sketch, unyielding human suffering. The rest of the dated c. 1550, attributed to Girolamo da saint’s upper body, as it is portrayed in the Carpi (Fig. 3), who was in Rome from Louvre sketch, is similar to the execution 1549 to 1553, shows the mentioned replica carried out in the altar painting. The strong of the Dying Son of Niobe The drawing affection and the imploring look toward from the Uffizi shows the complete sculp­ heaven link the drawing to the final execu­ ture along with two further sketches in the tion in the altarpiece. The unique inven- characteristic precision of da Carpi’s anti­ zione of the kneeling posture as an expres­ quarian studies. The learned Bolognese sion of physical suffering represents, I con­ Ulisse Aldrovandi mentions the Niobid in tend, a reworking of a classical model. his guide to the classical statues of Rome, Parmigianino’s sketch appears to posit an written in Rome between 1549 and 1550. early example of aresponse to the Dying Aldrovandi’s guide appeared in print for Son ofNiobe (Fig. 2), today in the Uffizi.12 the first time in 1556.15 Before the success­ The sculpture is a well-preserved Roman ful excavations of 1583, the actual icono- copy of a Hellenistic original, whose dating graphical meaning of the Niobid remained in the first or third century b.c. remains hidden to the antiquarians of the cinque- highly controversial. Direct knowledge of cento. But the rich expression of the figure the Dying Son of Niobe in sixteenth-centu­ was seen as a prototype of bodily pain. ry Rome is confirmed by several sources. According to Aldrovandi, the sculpture, The evidence strongly suggests that the located around 1550 in the collection of sketch by Parmigianino reproduces the della Valle-Rustici in Rome,16 was general­ Niobid for the Saint Roch altarpiece, al­ ly interpreted to be the son of Laocoon: though the sketch is a mirror image of the “Prima, che s’entri ne la sala del palagio, si original. Parmigianino transposes in his troua una statua inginocchiata con un sketch the similarly wrought classical ginocchio, mira in su col uolto, ha una model, where the figure has one leg spread mano col pugno chiuso sopra la coscia drit- out from the body and expresses dire pain. ta; 1’altra tiene stesa sopra un tronco, sul The hip section as well as the bend of the quale e la sua ueste riposta. Dicono che el la upper body in the representation of Saint sia un de’ figliuoli di Laocoonte.”17 Al­ Roch appear to have been inspired by the though the Dying Son of Niobe was, in an similar construction of the Niobid, who archaeological sense, incorrectly identi­ also leans on a stone. The imploring look of fied, the sculpture, removed from the com­ the Niobid to heaven, from where Apollo plete group of Niobids, was read as a depic­ fires the deadly arrows, is equally captured tion of adeath struggle. Indicative of this in the sketch by Parmigianino. The Dying interpretation is the earliest example of an Niobid that concerns us here was known as artistic response by the school of Giulio a Roman copy before the complete group Romano, which shows an adaption of the Florence Py o a Hellenistic sculpture. Marble; height: 124 cm. Uffizi, 17 Fig. 3 Girolamo da Carpi, drawingafter the Dying Son of Niobe. c. 1550. Uffizi, Florence 18 sculpture for a portrayal of the dying son of court painter in Mantua. I would argue that Laocodn. Following Giulio’s sketch, his Parmigianino’s drawing may be seenas a assistant, Rinaldo Mantovano, executed the further example in the history of the recep­ fresco portraying the Death of Laocodn in tion of that figure. It is possible that Par­ the Sala di Troia at the ducal palace of migianino drew his orientation for the por­ Mantua around 1536 to 1540.18 The pro­ trayal of the suffering Saint Roch from a nounced similarities of the left son of sculpture that had been classified as the son Laocodn with the sculpture of the Niobid of Laocodn and a prototype for the repre­ coincide in the case of the fresco with the sentation of bodily pain.19 As the final exe­ content of its tragic scene. Giulio Romano, cution of the altarpiece reveals, this phase who was primarily in Mantua after 1524, of Parmigianino’s work was merely an most likely sketched the sculpture while he episode. was in Rome prior to his appointment as NOTES I would like to thank John P. Wiggins for the transla­ logna ossia descrizione delle pitture, sculture e tion and for the useful discussion of the text. architetture di delta citta fatta I'anno 1560 del pit- tore Pietro Lamo (Bologna: 1844), p. 38. For de­ 1. Compare the brief mention in S. J. Freedberg, tailed information on the painting, see Freedberg, pp. Parmigianino: His Works in Painting (Cambridge, 74 ff.; also M.Thimann, “Parmigianinos Rochus- Mass.: 1950), p. 67. See also C. Gould, Parmigiani­ altar: Ein Pestvotiv fiir San Petronio in Bologna,” no (Milan: 1994), p. 58. Zeitschrift fiir Kunstgeschichte 61, no. 3 (1998): 2. Cf. G. Vasari, Le vile de'piu eccellenti pittori 410-419. scultori e architettori nelle redazioni del 1550 e 9. For literature on the sketches to date,see A. E. 1568, ed. R. Bettarini and P. Barocchi, 6 vols. (Flo­ Popham, Catalogue of the Drawings of Parmigi­ rence: 1966-1987), IV, p. 535. anino, 3 vols. (New Haven and London: 1971), I, pp. 3. Ibid., p. 536. 17 f.; G. Neufeld, “The Evolution of Parmigianino’s 4. D. Ekserdjian, “Parmigianino and Michel­ St. Roch,” Pantheon 29 (1971 ).326-328; S. Bdguin, angelo,” Master Drawings 31 (1993):390—394. “A propos de deux dessins inedits du Parmesan,”in 5. For selected literature on Parmigianino’s stay in Studies in Late Medieval and Renaissance Paintings Rome, see A.
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