Provenance
Padre Sebastiano Resta (1635-1714), Milan (see Lugt 2992 and Lugt 2993); Monsignor Giovanni Matteo Marchetti, Bishop of Arezzo (died 1704), Arezzo (see Lugt 2911); bequeathed to Cavaliere Orzaio Marchetti da Pistoia, his nephew; sold probably through John Talman (died 1726), Hinkworth, Hertfordshire (see Lugt 2462) in 1710 to John, Lord Somers, script (Lugt 2981) recto, lower right and lower center on mount, in pen and brown ink; sold, London, Motteux, May 16, 1717; Earl Spencer [stamp (Lugt 1531), recto, lower right, in black]. Sold, Puttick & Simpson, London, August 6-7, 1914, part of lot 439, as "Parmeggiano," to William F. E. Gurley (1854–1943), Chicago [stamp (Lugt 5308), recto, lower left, in black]; given to the Art Institute of Chicago for the Leonora Hall Gurley Memorial Collection, 1922 [stamp (Lugt 1230b), verso, center on mount, in black].
Accession Number
82264
Medium
Pen and brown ink on tan laid paper with blue fibers, laid down on ivory wove card
Dimensions
9.8 × 7.2 cm (3 7/8 × 2 7/8 in.)
Classification
pen and ink drawings
Credit Line
The Leonora Hall Gurley Memorial Collection
Background & Context
Background Story
"Woman Delousing a Child" is a 1524/27 pen and brown ink drawing by Parmigianino that captures the Italian Mannerist in an unusually intimate and domestic moment, the image showing a mother examining her child's hair for lice with the same elegant line that he brought to his religious and mythological subjects. The composition is small and informal—barely 10 × 7 centimeters—suggesting a sketch from life or a study of gesture and expression rather than a finished composition, the informality of the subject contrasting with the refinement of the technique. The brown ink on tan laid paper creates a warm, unified tonal field that makes the drawing feel like a moment captured in passing, the blue fibers in the paper adding a subtle chromatic variation that enhances the sense of material presence. The 1524/27 date places this work in the early years of Parmigianino's independent career, when he was producing the drawings that established his reputation as the most graceful draftsman of his generation. Art historians have connected this drawing to the broader tradition of the genre scene in Renaissance art, from the peasant subjects of the Northern Renaissance to the street scenes of Italian artists like Ceruti, noting that Parmigianino's treatment is more elegant, less focused on the social reality of poverty than these more ethnographically oriented predecessors. The work also demonstrates the range of Parmigianino's draftsmanship: he could move from the monumental religious compositions that made him famous to the intimate observation of daily life with an adaptability that reflects the breadth of his artistic curiosity.
Cultural Impact
This 1524/27 brown-ink sketch made maternal intimacy Manneristically elegant at miniature scale, using tan-laid-paper warmth and blue-fiber subtlety to capture daily life with the same graceful line as sacred mythological monumentality.
Why It Matters
It matters because Parmigianino drew a mother picking lice and made it look like a Madonna—proving that even the smallest gesture could be holy if the line was tender enough.
