(Parma 1544-1574)
and Girolamo Mirola
(Bologna?, c. 1530/35-1570 Parma)
The Holy Family with Saint Elisabeth and Saint John the Baptist, red chalk, heightened with white, on laid paper, 15,6 x 9,6 cm, mounted, framed, (Sch)

Provenance:
Johann Goll von Franckenstein (1722–1785), Amsterdam (Lugt 2987), numbered “4070”; Robert Prioleau Roupell (1798–1886), London (Lugt 2234); presumably Christie’s, London, 12th-14th July 1887, lot 809, as “Parmigianino, Holy Family with Saints”.

Literature:
See: Figure. Disegni dal Cinquecento all’Ottocento nella Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna, Exh. cat. Bologna, Pinacoteca Nazionale, Academia di Belle Arti, Milan 1998, No 12; D. De Grazia, Bertoia, Mirola and the Farnese court, Nuova Alfa, 1991; P. Rosenberg, Venus decouvrant Adonis: un tableau inedit de Jacopo Bertoia, in: Ars naturam adiuvans: Festschrift für Matthis Winner zum II. März 1996, Mainz 1996, pp. 296-300; D. Cordellier, Girolamo Mirola o Miruola (Bologna?, c. 1530/35 – 1570 Parma, in: Il Cinquecento a Bologna. Disegni dal Louvre e dipinti a confronto, catalogo della mostra, a cura di Marzia Faietti con la collaborazione di Dominique Cordellier (Bologna 18th May – 18th August 2002), Milan 2002, pp. 251-252; M.C. Chiusa, Per un catalogo ragionato di Bertoja: un nuovo disegno, in: Belle Arti Saggi di Storia e di Stile, Milan 2005, pp. 63-71.

With a certificate by Dott. Maria Cristina Chiusa.

The present drawing represents the „The Holy Family with Saint Elisabeth and Saint John the Baptist”. The subject is not described in the gospels but was very popular among artists of the Cinquecento. The carefully executed drawing shows a harmoniously balanced composition and a precise arrangement of the figures. Virgin Mary is rendered in back view; her head is turned towards the onlooker. Saint Elisabeth appears behind her as well as the children Jesus and John who are embracing each other in between of the two mothers. Their gestures recall similar features in subjects like the Visitation or the forthcoming event of Baptism. At the centre of the left margin and above the Virgin, Saint Joseph is rendered a little outside of the main scene such as the iconographic tradition wanted it. Several figures appear in the background.

There are also two columns whose space in between opens into a landscape. The artist executed the scene with red chalk and delicate white heightenings; the precise rendering of the motifs and the small format of the sheet may point to the assumption that the drawing presumably was a commissioned work which was especially executed on the demand of a collector. The drapery, the masterly realisation, the elongated anatomy and the carefully studied poses of the figures are of utmost elegance. The graceful and delicate rendering of the figures and the technically superb execution let one think about an artist from the circle of Francesco Mazzola, called Il Parmigianino. The present sheet can even be better connected with the work by Jacopo Zanguidi, called Bertoia (Parma 1544-1573) and Girolamo Mirola (Bologna? 1530/35 - c. 1570 Parma). The two artists were active in the Palazzo del Giardino for Ottavio Farnese in Parma. In the recent two decades their work was studied in essays by P. Rosenberg, D. Cordellier and particularly by M.C. Chiusa in her monograph on Bertoia (see Literature).

Little is known about the life of Bertoia. Having been born four years after the death of Parmigianino, he was an excellent and prolific draftsman as well. He spent most of his short career in Parma und Rome, where he was mainly active for his most important patrons Alessandro and Ottavio Farnese. For Alessandro Bertoia decorated the Oratory of the Gonfalone brotherhood in Rome, for Ottavio he created a series of frescoes in the Palazzo del Giardino in Parma and in the Palazzo Farnese in Caprarola, the latter of which was erected by Vignola. In Caprarola the artist had the chance to exchange experiences with Tuscan, Roman and Flemish artists and above all with Bartolomeus Spranger who he may have got to know in Parma.

The drawing style of Girolamo Mirola was certainly influenced by his contemporaries Pellegrino Tibaldi (c. 1527/32 – 1592/96) and Giovan Francesco Bezzi, called il Nosadella (1530-1571). Both worked in the circle of Primaticcio in Fontainebleau.

The large existing corpus of drawings and paintings by Bertoja and Mirola opens the possibility to compare and to classify the present drawing with other works within the oeuvres of the two artists. The group of the Holy Family with John the Baptist and Saint are similar to the figures in a painting in the Fondazione Cini in Venice which is showing a „Birth of Christ“ and is today regarded a work by Bertoia but was formerly attributed to Parmigianino, Bertoia and Girolamo Bedoli. Even though the painting is different in subject from the present drawing the representation of the figures, the draperies, the gestures and the fantastic architecture recall the master.

Nevertheless, the drapery style of Mary, the figures of Joseph and the shepherds reveal resemblances with the work of Girolamo Mirola who collaborated with Bertoia in the frescoes of Ottavia Farnese’s residence. In addition, the figures of Joseph and the shepherds recall the study sheet „Women embracing each other“ by Girolamo Mirola in the Metropolitan Museum in New York (D. De Grazia, Bertoija, Mirola and the Farnese Court, Nuova Alfa 1991, Mirola Cat. D6, Fig. 102). There are several other examples which reveal the proximity of the present work to Bertoia as for example the painting „The Entry of Jesus in Jerusalem“ in the Galleria Nazionale in Parma and a fresco with a similar subject in the oratory of Gonfalone. The latter shows certain similarities in the formal language of Bertoja, particularly in the figure of Christ. Other analogies, especially the figure of the Virgin and the Child, can be found in the drawing „Madonna with child and saints “ in the collection of Duke Roberto Ferretti in London (De Grazia 1991, Bertoja Cat. D80, Fig. 187).

The examples of other resemblances can be further continued. Even though the drawing cannot be connected with absolute precision with a painted work by Bertoja and Mirola, one can assume that the sheet bears certain characteristics of Bertoia who in several details may have reworked the drawing of his pupil Mirola. Dott. Anna Maria Chiusa suggests a dating of the present drawing to 1569-1570.

We are grateful to Dott. Maria Cristina Chiusa for the scientific support in regard of cataloguing the present sheet.