Madonna With Long Neck

721 Words3 Pages
This essay is a study of Parmigianino, The Madonna with the Swan Neck and also makes an attempt to understand the spirit and idea behind the guiding force that made Parmigianino deviate from the standard norms of art and paint this masterpiece.

Before embarking on an examination of a particular work of art it is going to be useful to mention two key views of history that have been adopted by past and contemporary art historians as they will have an important bearing on how we ultimately understand the past and how this subsequently effects our interpretation of any artwork.

Let us begin by illustrating how certain modern commentators have been influenced by past art historical narratives by considering the painting Madonna dal Collo Lungo or The Madonna with the Long Neck (Figure 1) by the Italian Mannerist artist Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola (1503-40), more commonly known as Parmigianino, a name that recalls his birthplace of Parma in the north of Italy. It is hoped that it will be possible to illustrate that any interpretation of Parmigianino’s painting is always going to be mediated through an art historical narrative, the mechanism with which art historians have traditionally employed over time to organise and make sense of our view of art’s past. If so, this will imply that any interpretation is ultimately going to be dependent upon another person’s particular view of art’s history.

The painting depicts the virgin mary as Madonna, seated on a high pedestal and swathed in luxurious robes, holding a rather large baby Jesus on her lap. On her left are visible six angels crowding around the Madonna and adoring the Christ. The unfinished face of the angel on the bottom left (from the viewer's perspective) can be seen more clearly in recent reproductions, following a restoration of the painting. Additionally, the angel in the middle of the bottom row
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