A Sheet of 8 etchings Virgin with Child

The sheet, of heavy laid paper, has an unidentified watermark, but similar to others produced in Italy between 1520 and 1530. It comes from the personal collection of Antonio Lafreri (1512 - 1577) who was an engraver and publisher in Rome. The eight small prints, which are part of Parmigianino's engravings corpus, are laid out on a single sheet. The artists printed multiple plates on the same sheet and then they trimmed individual images for the collectors' market. Considering the rarity of each single etching, this specimen is probably unique in the world.

This is a composition full of emotional tension in an atmosphere of intimacy played on the crossing of the glances of mother and son. The elongated figure of the Virgin, sweet and supple, surrounds the Child, her arm extends elegantly to contain Jesus who, seated on a cushion, turns to her, throwing his curly head back in a tender gesture of abandonment. The dense vertical hatching that defines the setting of the scene highlights the curvilinear trend of the folds of the clothes, of the contours of the figure of Mary, who, sitting in unstable equilibrium on a base, almost seems to slide slowly downwards.