(Parma 1503–1540 Casalmaggiore)
Madonna della Mela,
oil on panel, 16.5 x 13 cm, inlaid frame

Provenance:
Possibily from the collection of Jacques Laure de Tonnelier, called Le Bailli de Breteuil (1722–1785), who between 1758 and 1771 was envoi of the Maltese Knights to the Holy See in Rome (as Parmigianino, compare the engraving based on the painting by B. Bossi from 1761);
possibly sold, Finarte, Milan, 29 October 1964 (as Parmigianino);
English private collection;
sale Sotheby’s, London, 2 May 2012, lot 31 (as ‘Parmese School of the 16th century’).

Literature:
Possibly the painting reproduced in P. Bellini, L’Opera Incisa Adamo e Diana Scultori, Vicenza 1991, pp. 211, ill. 248.

We are grateful to Professor Mina Gregori, who has endorsed the present work as a fully autograph work by Parmigianino after examining the present painting in the original after recently cleaning (written communication). We are also grateful to Dr. Emilio Negro and Dr. Nicosetta Roio for independently identifying the present picture as a fully autograph work by Parmigianino (written communication). Professor David Ekserdijan has reconfirmed his opinion, already expressed in 2012, that the present painting is probably based on a lost model by Parmigianino.

In 1761, Benigno Bossi published an engraving based on a painting by Parmigianino then in the Breteuil Collection (fig.1). The print appears to exactly reproduce the present composition in the reverse. The engraving and the present painting are of almost identical dimensions.

A closely related drawing is conserved in the Uffizi in Florence, which was reproduced in the 16th century by Diana Ghisi with reference to Parmigianino as the author (fig.2). Another print was based on the drawing by Stefano Mulinari (fig.3). A painting of almost identical dimensions was sold at Finarte in Milan in 1964 and was identified by Paolo Bellini as an original work by Parmigianino. It cannot be clarified with absolute certainty whether the present composition and the Milan painting are identical (an opinion held by Emilio Negro).

The present work reflects Parmigianino’s early style. After his father’s death, the artist was raised by two uncles, Michele and Pier Ilario who in 1515 received a commission to decorate a chapel in the church of San Giovanni Evangelista in Parma; their work was eventually finished by the young Parmigianino. When he was eighteen years old, the artist completed the Bardi altarpiece. In 1521, he was sent to the remote town of Viadana, to escape the turmoil of war. In Viadana, the young artist completed two paintings for churches in Parma – a Saint Francis for the Frati de’ Zoccoli and a Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine of Alexandria for San Pietro. The present composition can be considered as a characteristic example of the artist’s early period in Parma (circa 1522). Typical features are the elongation of the figures and the delicate painterly technique, both of which anticipate the artist’s Mannerist style.