Parmigianino
1503
- 1540
(37)
Biography
Parmigianino, born Francesco Mazzola, was one of the most important Italian painters of Mannerism. He was born in Parma in 1503 and displayed exceptional artistic talent from an early age. Influenced by Correggio and later by the works of Michelangelo and Raphael, he developed a distinctive style characterized by elongated figures, elegant movements and unusual proportions.
He lived and worked in Rome, where he came into contact with the leading artists of the Renaissance. The Sack of Rome in 1527 forced him to leave the city and return to northern Italy. Among his most celebrated works are the «Madonna with the Long Neck», one of the defining paintings of Mannerism, and the remarkable «Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror», in which he explored distortion and perspective with extraordinary ingenuity.
Parmigianino was also an accomplished printmaker and played an important role in spreading the Mannerist aesthetic across Europe. His art, with its refined elegance, elongated forms and deliberate departure from natural proportions, had a lasting influence on later generations of artists. He died in Casalmaggiore in 1540, at the age of only 37.