Revealing the Secrets of a 16th-Century Painting
Explore the elaborate details that make this artwork one of a Getty curator’s favorites
Virgin and Child with Saint John the Baptist and Mary Magdalene, about 1535–40, Parmigianino. Oil on paper, laid down on panel. Getty Museum
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Getty’s Senior Curator of Paintings Davide Gasparotto always stops to look at Parmigianino's 16th-century painting Virgin and Child with Saint John the Baptist and Mary Magdalene when walking through the Museum galleries. With its elaborate attention to detail and immediate visual imbalance due to the figures’ positions, it's easy to understand why. But what else makes it so special?
In the third season of Getty’s Close Looking video series, Getty curators explore the details of artworks they cherish. In this episode, Gasparotto discusses this unique painting by Parmigianino in all its aspects, from the women's unique proportions to the unexpected materials it’s made from to what x-rays of the work revealed.
“What I love about this painting is the way in which Parmigianino applies paint and emphasized all these wonderful details,” Gasparotto notes.
Learn more about the painting (including who Gasparotto imagines may have commissioned the work) and the way it was made in the video below.
Get an insider’s view of more works of art in Getty’s Close Looking series, in which art experts and enthusiasts around Getty share some of their favorite works of art.
