The drawing is a preparatory study for the portrait of Charles V painted in Bologna ca. 1529-30, now in a private collection.1 The subject is allegorical, showing the Emperor as the ruler over the world. According to Vasari, Parmigianino painted the allegorical portrait in February 1530 after having seen the Emperor at the dinner table on the occasion of his trip to Bologna to reconcile with the Pope two years after the Sack of Rome. We are told that the Emperor was very pleased with the portrait, but Parmigianino did not leave it with him.2 Parmigianino is documented in Bologna from autumn 1529 to spring 1530, and it is not unlikely that he did paint a portrait of the Emperor during this time.
The drawing is noteworthy not only because of its connection with the painting but also because it shows that Parmigianino always intended the portrait to be allegorical and to include the symbol of the globe. This detail is significant with respect to another painting by Parmigianino, the Madonna della Rosa, where a globe is also included, which Parmigianino likely added as an afterthought when the patron of the picture was switched from Pietro Aretino to the Pope.3
A. E. Popham tentatively suggested that there was another extant study for the painting, possibly for the angel crowning the Emperor, which he knew through an old reproduction.4
Footnotes:
- Parma and Vienna 2003, 260, no. II.2.24.
- Vasari 1878-85, 5: 227-28.
- Vaccaro, in Béguin, Di Giampaolo and Vaccaro 2000, 81.
- Popham 1971, 1: 260, no. O.R. 118.
Watermark: none.
Inscribed at upper right, in black chalk, "43"; on verso, at lower right, in black chalk, "4 (?)"; on mount, beneath drawing, in graphite, "1682".
Arundel, Thomas Howard, Earl of, 1585-1646, former owner.
Howard, Henry Stafford, Earl of, approximately 1648-approximately 1719, former owner.
Zanetti, Antonio Maria, 1680-1757, former owner.
David, Eugene, 1784- former owner.
Lawrence, Thomas, Sir, 1769-1830, former owner.
Diaz, Émile, 1835-1860, former owner.
Coningham, William, 1815-1884, former owner.
Murray, Charles Fairfax, 1849-1919, former owner.
Morgan, J. Pierpont (John Pierpont), 1837-1913, former owner.
Morgan, J. P. (John Pierpont), 1867-1943, former owner.
Selected references: Fairfax Murray 1905-12, 4: no. 43; Freedberg 1950, 208; Copertini 1952, 121; Bologna 1956, 14, note 13; Waltham 1963, no. 13; Fagiolo dell'Arco 1970, 271; Popham 1971, 1: 19, 124, no. 318; Cologne 1977, 316, under no. 88; Rossi 1980, 98, no. 42; Bologna 1986, under no. 62; Gould 1994, 118-19, 189, no. A31; Hirst 2000, 46; Vaccaro, in Béguin, Di Giampaolo and Vaccaro 2000, 81; Chiusa 2001, 96; Parma and Vienna 2003, 260, no. II.2.24; Thimann, in Nova 2006, 73-77; Gnann 2007, 244, 247, 466, no. 720; New York 2010, 52.
Collection J. Pierpont Morgan : Drawings by the Old Masters Formed by C. Fairfax Murray. London : Privately printed, 1905-1912, IV, 43, repr. recto.