Parmigianino

Happy Birthday Parmigianino!! Italian Mannerist painter, born in 1503, his real name was Francesco Mazzola. He came from a family of less important painters. Correggio and later Raphael influenced his work. The figures in Parmigianino’s frescoes had long necks and hands and seem to swoon in their ecstasy. He was one of the first to use etchings, engravings and woodcuts in his work. Although he was quite elegant and sensitive in his painting style, personally he was said to be neurotic and rather mad at the end of his short life 1503-1540).  The detail of Cupid’s head is from Parmigianino’s Cupid Shaping His Bow.