Parmigianino and the artists of his time

Research project P14167 Paragiano and the artists of his time Konrad OBERHUBER 26.6.2000 The project aims at a comprehensive presentation of the stylistic development of the painter Francesco Parmigianino, based on his paintings, drawings and prints. It also hopes to clarify the influence of the artist on his contemporaries. The pubblication of the results should take place in the year 2003, Parmigianino`s 500th anniversary. While the artist is treated extensively in scholarly pubblications nobody has up to now tempted to reconstruct his stilistic development year by year during the various creative periods of his life. This becomes especially evident when one studies the more than 800 drawings. Even though they are all published their chronology is still unclear. Their sure dating however can become a decisive factor in the dating of many paintings, whose place in Parmigianino`s Oeuvre is still under debate. In our project "Paintings and graphic art in Rome from 1520 to 1527" Dr. Achim Gnann and I have laid the foundation for this research by establishing the chronology of Parmigianino`s roman works with very interesting results. This research must now be extended to the artist`s other periods of work. It is part of this project to pursue Parmigianino`s relationships to other artists who influenced him and who continued his style. For the early period in Parma one has to study Parmigianino`s interest for Correggio and Leonardo and his lombard followers as well as his contacts with the artists in the Emilia and particularly in Bologna and Ferrara. In Rome he had relationships to Rosso Fiorentino, Perino del Vaga or Polidoro da Caravaggio as well as with the important graphic artists Ugo da Carpi and Gian Giacomo Caraglio who disseminated his work. His relationship to the young Primaticcio in Bologna will have to be examined. The works of his second period in Parma influenced artists as Mazzola-Bedoli, the Campi, Bertcja, Mirola or Schiavone. Their artistic contacts with Parmigianino, deserve further research. Very little is known about the woodcutters Antonio da Trento and Niccol6 Vicentino, two pupils of Ugo da Carpi, who may have started to work with Parmigianino already in Rome. After the clarification of these multiple, relationships the work of Parmigianino with regard to his contemporaries will appear in a new light. This will lead to a new understanding not only of his style but also of his art in general.