Virgin and Child (recto); Sketch of Three Saints and Caricature Sketch (verso)

Parmigianinos Virgin and Child on the recto with a Sketch of Three Saints and Caricature Sketch on the verso is a pen and brown ink drawing over black and red chalk on tan laid paper that exemplifies the Mannerist masters approach to drawing as a practice of continuous invention and revision. The Virgin and Child, depicting the Madonna holding the infant Christ in a composition of exaggerated elegance and serpentine curvature, demonstrates the quality of graceful elongation that gave Parmigianino his nickname and that made him one of the most influential draftsmen of the 16th century. The sketch of three saints on the verso, with its quickly drawn figures that capture the essential poses and proportions of the compositions without the refinement of the recto, reveals the working process of an artist who thought through drawing and whose pen moved as quickly as his mind. The caricature sketch on the verso, which distorts a human face into a comic exaggeration, reveals a dimension of Parmigianinos talent that is less visible in his finished paintings and drawings: the ability to see the human figure as a pliable form that can be stretched, compressed, and distorted for comic or expressive effect. The combination of chalk underdrawing and pen and ink on the recto demonstrates the two-stage working method that was standard in Renaissance drawing, in which the composition was first sketched in chalk and then refined in pen and ink, and the tan laid paper provides a warm ground that enhances the tonal unity of the drawing.

Parmigianinos drawings are among the most influential works in the history of Western draftsmanship, and their impact on the practice of drawing extends from his contemporaries through the Mannerist and Baroque periods to the present. The Virgin and Child demonstrates the serpentine grace and elongation that made his work the model of Mannerist elegance.

A pen and ink drawing by Parmigianino over chalk on tan laid paper depicting the Virgin and Child on the recto with Three Saints and a caricature sketch on the verso, demonstrating his Mannerist serpentine grace and revealing his working process of invention and revision.