Madonna and Child with Saints is a 1586 oil on canvas painting by Agostino Carracci, dated on the lowest step of the Virgin Mary's throne. An example of a sacra conversazione. Long in the Benedictine abbey of San Paolo in Parma, French troops took it to Paris in 1796 and on its return to Italy in 1816 it was moved to the Galleria nazionale di Parma, where it still hangs. [1]
From left to right the four accompanying saints are an unidentified bishop or abbot (some argue for Benedict of Nursia, whilst Quintavalle identified him as Nicholas of Bari [2] ), Margaret of Antioch (with a cross and a dragon), the infant Saint John the Baptist and Cecilia (with her palm of martyrdom, a book and a small organ). The figure kneeling to the Madonna's right was traditionally a painting's commissioner or his or her name-saint. Here that figure is Saint Margaret, showing it was commissioned for the abbey church by Margherita Farnese (she was then its abbess, having joined the Benedictines after Vincenzo Gonzaga had their marriage annulled). She also studied music there with Giulio Cima, so assiduously that she was accused of an affair with him, rumours which the figure of Saint Cecilia in the painting may have been intended to dispel. [3]
The work's colour scheme, luminosity and silks show the influence of contemporary Venetian art, reinterpreted through the naturalistic Parmese lens of painters such as Correggio, with Cecilia's pose also influenced by Parmigianino.
Agostino Carracci was an Italian painter, printmaker, tapestry designer, and art teacher. He was, together with his brother, Annibale Carracci, and cousin, Ludovico Carracci, one of the founders of the Accademia degli Incamminati in Bologna. Intended to devise alternatives to the Mannerist style favored in the preceding decades, this teaching academy helped propel painters of the School of Bologna to prominence.
Antonio Allegri da Correggio, usually known as just Correggio, was the foremost painter of the Parma school of the High Italian Renaissance, who was responsible for some of the most vigorous and sensuous works of the sixteenth century. In his use of dynamic composition, illusionistic perspective and dramatic foreshortening, Correggio prefigured the Baroque art of the seventeenth century and the Rococo art of the eighteenth century. He is considered a master of chiaroscuro.
Annibale Carracci was an Italian painter and instructor, active in Bologna and later in Rome. Along with his brother and cousin, Annibale was one of the progenitors, if not founders of a leading strand of the Baroque style, borrowing from styles from both north and south of their native city, and aspiring for a return to classical monumentality, but adding a more vital dynamism. Painters working under Annibale at the gallery of the Palazzo Farnese would be highly influential in Roman painting for decades.
Domenico Zampieri, known by the diminutive Domenichino after his shortness, was an Italian Baroque painter of the Bolognese School of painters.
Giovanni Battista Salvi da Sassoferrato, also known as Giovanni Battista Salvi, was an Italian Baroque painter, known for his archaizing commitment to Raphael's style. He is often referred to only by the town of his birthplace (Sassoferrato), as was customary in his time, and for example seen with da Vinci and Caravaggio.
Giovanni Lanfranco was an Italian painter of the Baroque period.
Amico Aspertini, also called Amerigo Aspertini, was an Italian Renaissance painter and sculptor whose complex, eccentric, and eclectic style anticipates Mannerism. He is considered one of the leading exponents of the Bolognese School of painting.
San Giovanni Evangelista is a church in Parma, northern Italy, part of a complex also including a Benedictine convent and the San Giovanni Old pharmacy.
The Galleria nazionale di Parma is an art gallery in Parma, northern Italy.
La Scapigliata is an unfinished painting generally attributed to the Italian High Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci, and dated c. 1506–1508. Painted in oil, umber, and white lead pigments on a small poplar wood panel, its attribution remains controversial, with several experts attributing the work to a pupil of Leonardo. The painting has been admired for its captivating beauty, mysterious demeanor, and mastery of sfumato.
Madonna and Child is a 1621–1627 painting by Anthony van Dyck, now in the Galleria nazionale di Parma.
The Madonna of the Stairs is a fresco fragment by Correggio, dating to around 1522-1523 and now in the Galleria Nazionale di Parma.
Pietà is a c. 1600 oil on canvas painting by Annibale Carracci, the earliest surviving work by him on the subject, which was commissioned by Odoardo Farnese. It moved from Rome to Parma to Naples as part of the Farnese collection and is now in the National Museum of Capodimonte in Naples. It is one of many 16th century Bolognese paintings dedicated to the theme of the Pietà, and it is counted among Carracci's masterpieces.
Portrait of a Man in a Red Beret or Self-Portrait in a Red Beret is an oil on paper painting attributed to Parmigianino or Michelangelo Anselmi, executed c. 1540, now in the collection of the National Gallery of Parma.
Christ in Glory with Saints and Odoardo Farnese or 'Christ in Glory with Odoardo Farnese and Saints Peter, John the Evangelist, Mary Magdalene, Hermenegild and Edward is a painting by Annibale Carracci. Placed in the Eremo di Camldoli either early in its life or straight after its creation, at the end of the 17th century Ferdinando II de' Medici moved it to the Galleria Palatina in Florence, where it still hangs.
Self-Portrait is a 1593 oil on canvas painting by Annibale Carracci, now in the Galleria Nazionale di Parma. It is dated 17 April 1593 on the top left of the canvas.
Pietà with Saints Clare, Francis and Mary Magdalene is a 1585 oil on canvas painting by Annibale Carracci, now in the Galleria nazionale di Parma.
Saint Margaret of Antioch is a 1599 oil on canvas painting by Annibale Carracci, showing Margaret of Antioch. It hangs in Santa Caterina dei Funari church in Rome.
The Dead Christ Mourned is an oil painting on canvas of c. 1604 by Annibale Carracci. It was in the Orleans Collection before arriving in Great Britain in 1798. In 1913 it was donated to the National Gallery, London, which describes it as "perhaps the most poignant image in [its] collection of the pietà – the lamentation over the dead Christ following his crucifixion – and one of the greatest expressions of grief in Baroque art".
Madonna and Child with Saint Zechariah is a c.1530–1533 oil on panel painting by Parmigianino, now in the Uffizi. It shows the Madonna and Child with Zechariah, father of John the Baptist.