Currently not on view
Seated Figure of Pallas Athena,
ca. 1531–35
These three fragments represent Parmigianino’s preliminary ideas for the splendid brooch worn by Minerva, or Pallas Athena, in his bust-length painting of the ancient goddess. The upper and lower drawings focus on the overall design and the winged figure of Victory, shown in the brooch flying over the city of Athens. The central sketch, possibly an abandoned idea for the same project, derives from an ancient coin that Parmigianino saw in the collection of one of his patrons. In all three sketches the artist employed his calligraphic penmanship to delineate with filigree precision the graceful, elongated figure types, with long torsos and small heads, that he perfected during his Roman sojourn. For another example of this type, see the adjacent drawing.
Many of Parmigianino’s surviving sketches were cut from larger sheets by greedy dealers or by aesthetically inclined collectors such as Pierre-Jean Mariette, who framed and placed these three examples like exquisite gems on one of his custom-made blue mats. In addition to inscribing the mat with the artist’s name and life dates, Mariette encouraged the viewer to look at the sketches on the backs of the upper and lower drawings with the abbreviated invitation: T.S.V.P. (Tournez s’il vous plait: “Turn over please”).
Information
ca. 1531–35
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Lili Fröhlich-Bume, "Unpublished drawings by Parmigianino", Old master drawings 9, no. 36 (Mar., 1935): p. 55-57.
, p. 55, 56; pl. 57 (recto) - Sydney Joseph Freedberg, Parmigianino: his works in painting, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1950). , p. 226, no. 226
- Sydney Joseph Freedberg, Painting of the high Renaissance in Rome and Florence, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1961).
- Sydney Joseph Freedberg, Painting in Italy, 1500-1600, (Harmondsworth, UK; Baltimore, MD: Penguin Books, 1970).
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A. E. Popham, Catalogue of the drawings of Parmigianino, (New Haven, CT: Published for the Pierpont Morgan Library [by] Yale University Press, 1971).
, no. 799a, pl. 364 - "Acquisitions of the Art Museum 1989," Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 49, no. 1 (1990): p. 24-57., pp. 28–29
- Achim Gnann, Parmigianino: die Zeichnungen, (Petersberg: M. Imhof, 2007)., Vol. 1: p. 275, 486, no. 839 Vol. 2: p. 618, no. 838 (Illus.)
- Laura Giles, Lia Markey, Claire Van Cleave, et. al., Italian Master Drawings from the Princeton University Art Museum, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2014)., p. 44, cat. no. 17; p. 45 (illus.); p. 46 (verso illus.); p. 257-258, app. no. 86 (illus.)
