Parmigianino

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Parmigianino

1503-1540

Two Studies of a Putto and a Study of a Seated Boy with a Putto. Verso: Studies of a Woman's Head, a Child and a Fence

ca. 1523-1524

Red chalk on paper; verso: red chalk.

7 1/4 x 5 7/8 inches (183 x 149 mm)

Gift of Janos Scholz.

1977.47

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Description:

The present drawing remains unconnected to any known work by Parmigianino. The sheet has some similarity to another drawing in the Morgan’s collection that is connected with the young artist’s frescoes at Fontanellato.¹ However, the slightly more elongated dimensions of the figures supports a slightly later date of just before or after the artist’s departure for Rome in 1524, as suggested by A. E. Popham.²

The Morgan sheet may be connected with two drawings, one in the Devonshire Collection, Chatsworth, the other in the Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, which originally formed part of the same sheet.³ On the verso of the Harvard sheet, Parmigianino studied music-making angels, similar to those appearing in the upper left corner of a drawing, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, of the Adoration of the Shepherds securely dated to the artist’s Roman period.⁴ Konrad Oberhuber and Dean Walker speculated that the Morgan studies might have been made in connection with a composition of the Madonna and Child or a Holy Family with the Infant St. John.⁵

Footnotes:

Morgan Library & Museum, New York, inv. I, 49.
Popham 1971, 1: 225, no. 788.
The Devonshire Collection, Chatsworth, inv. 792a-b; Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, inv. 1932.313. See Gnann 2007, 1: 431, nos. 515, 516.
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, inv. 46.80.3; Gnann 2007, 1: 430-31, no. 510.
Washington and New York 1973-74, 69-71, no. 57.

Notes:

Watermark: none.

Inscription:

Inscribed on verso in black chalk, "Permand".

Provenance:

Private collection, France; purchased in New York from a French collection in 1953? by Janos Scholz, New York (no mark; see Lugt S. 2933b).

Associated names:

Scholz, János, former owner.

Bibliography:

Selected references: Bloomington 1958, no. 35; Fröhlich-Bum 1958, 10, 12, no. 3; Hamburg and Cologne 1963-64, no. 108; New Haven 1964, no. 43; Milwaukee 1964, no. 28; New York 1965, no. 89; Colorado Springs 1967, no. 7; London 1968, no. 67; Middletown 1969, no. 11; Notre Dame 1970, no. D15; Fagiolo dell'Arco 1970, 251; New York 1971, 19, no. 63; Popham 1971, 1: 225, no. 788; Providence 1973, 30-31, no. 30; Washington and New York 1973-74, 69-71, no. 57; Scholz 1976, 14, no. 34; Fellows Report 1978, 276; Leymaile, Monnier, and Rose 1979, 92; Cambridge 1979, 50, under no. 19; Gnann 2007, 1: 366, no. 104.
Ryskamp, Charles, ed. Eighteenth Report to the Fellows of the Pierpont Morgan Library, 1975-1977. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1978, p. 276.
Oberhuber, Konrad, and Dean Walker. Sixteenth Century Italian Drawings From the Collection of János Scholz. Washington, D.C. : National Gallery of Art ; New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1973, no. 57, repr. (includes previous bibliography and exhibitions).
Scholz, Janos. Italian Master Drawings, 1350-1800, from the János Scholz Collection. New York : Dover, 1976, no. 34, repr.

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