Open IIIF manifest What is IIIF IIIF viewers

Head of a young woman looking to the right (recto); Head of a bearded man in profile (verso)

Maker

(artist)
1503-1540

Title

Date of Production

1521 - 1524

Medium

traces of red chalk, pen and brown ink, brown wash on laid paper, graphite added to the brow and pupil, with brown ink framing lines, laid down on a historic mount (Mariette's?); transmitted light reveals pen and ink drawing on the verso

Dimensions

Height: 10.1 cm
Width: 8.2 cm

Accession Number

D.1952.RW.2387

Mode of Acquisition

Robert Clermont Witt, bequest, 1952

Credit

The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Copyright

Work in the public domain

Location

Not currently on display

Keywords

Label Text

The young Parmigianino carefully studied this model from life, using a combination of heavily worked lines and subtle brown wash. He focused on meticulously rendering her hair, with loose strands uncurling from her neck and the top of her head. Though now pasted down onto an historic mount, technical examination of this sheet has revealed a previously unknown drawing in ink on its reverse. Its undulating lines are visible in the drawing’s lower section. When turning the sheet at ninety degrees, a sketch of a bearded man in profile, with a bald pate and his mouth half open, can just be made out.

Notes

The image of the profile male head on the verso is only visible under infrared light.

Provenance

Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel (1585-1646) [when copied by Lucas Vorsterman]; probably Everhard Jabach (1607/10-1695) [his 1695 post-mortem inventory lists as no. 59 "dudit [Parmigianino] La tête d'une fille à la plume et haussé sur papier bistré rougeâtre, long de 6 1/4 et haut de 6 3/4 pouces, 2 livres 10 sols]; probably Pierre Crozat, Paris (1665-1740); probably his sale, Paris, 1741, lot 351 or 356 [no Crozat mark but Mariette likely acquired it there, as lots 351 and 356 comprised 14 and 15 drawings respectively by Parmigianino]; purchased there by Pierre-Jean Mariette, Paris (1694-1774), L.2097 (lower left); probably his estate sale, Basan (Paris), 15 November 1775 – 30 January 1776, part of lot 509 (28 sheets divided into 7 lots); probably purchased there by either Charles Philippe Campion de Tersan (136-1819), Jean Antoine Hubert Vassal de Saint-Hubert (1741-1782), or Louis François Petit-Radel (1740-11818) [see Rosenberg 2019, II, p. 816]; Charles Rogers, London (1711-1784), L.625 (lower right); Henry Wagner (1840-1926); his sale, Sotheby's (London), 12 December 1928, lot 78; purchased there by Sir Robert Witt, London (1872-1952); Witt Bequest 1952

Exhibition History

Drawings Gallery Display - The Art of Experiment: Parmigianino at The Courtauld, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 03/05/2022-06/05/2022

The Witt Collection - Four centuries of drawings, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 03/04/2004-20/06/2004

Parmigianino - Paintings, Drawings, Prints, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 14/05/1987-12/07/1987 ...More

Italian Old Master drawings. Witt Collection, Courtauld Gallery, The National Art Gallery of New Zealand, Wellington, 1970

Old Master Drawings from the Witt Collection, Auckland City Art Gallery, 01/09/1960-01/10/1960

Italian Art and Britain, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 01/01/1960-01/03/1960 ...Less

Literature

The Art of Experiment: Parmigianino at The Courtauld, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 2022
cat. no. 10
and on pp. 13, 20, 166-68
ill. on p. 81, detail on p. 78, infrared is fig. 29 on p. 80, technical images are figs. 72-77 on pp. 167-69

Rosenberg, Paul, Les dessins de la Collection Mariette: écoles italienne et espagnole. 4 vols, Paris 2019
vol. II, no. I 1391 on p. 816
ill. on p. 816

Parmigianino: dessins du Louvre, Musée du Louvre, Paris, 17 December 2015-15 February 2016 Paris 2015
p. 132 under no. 45 and note 47 ...More

Gnann, Achim, Parmigianino: Die Zeichnungen, Petersberg 2007
vol. I, pp. 60, 364-65, vol. II, no. 92
ill.

Vaccaro, Mary, Parmigianino: the paintings, Turin 2002
p. 170

Py, Bernadette, Everhard Jabach collectionneur (1618-1695): les dessins de l'inventaire de 1695, Paris 2001
p. 108, no. 334

Parmigianino - Paintings, Drawings, Prints, Courtauld, London, 1987
cat. no. 19
ill. on p. 10

Popham, A. E., Catalogue of the Drawings of Parmigianino, New Haven and London 1971
vol. I, no. 263
vol. II, pl. 292

Italian Old Master drawings. Witt Collection, Courtauld Gallery, The National Art Gallery of New Zealand, Wellington, 1970
cat. no. 9

Popham, A.E., Artists working in Parma in the sixteenth century, British Museum, London 1967
under no. 175

Italian Art and Britain, Royal Academy, London, Winter 1960
cat. no. 467

Old Master Drawings from the Witt Collection, Auckland City Art Gallery, 1960
cat. no. 39 ...Less

Inscriptions

Watermark: Watermark: unable to check due to mount.

Inscription: Mount (removed, recorded in M+), Recto: lower centre: "Franciscus MAZZUOLA".

Collector's mark: Recto: lower left corner, stamped in black: Pierre-Jean Mariette (L.2097); lower right corner, pen brown ink: Charles Rogers (L.625).

Information on this object may be incomplete and will be updated as research progresses. We are particularly committed to addressing any discriminatory or offensive language and ideas that might be present in our records. To help improve this record, and to enquire about images of The Courtauld Gallery Collection, please email gallery.collectionsonline@courtauld.ac.uk. Find out more about using and licensing our images.

____________________________

Buy a print from our collection