Live Auction 7839Old Master, Modern & Contemporary Prints
Christie’s roundel
Lot 37

Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola, Il Parmigianino (1503-1540)

The Entombment (Second Version) (B. 5)

Closed31 March 2010

Price Realised

GBP 4,375

Considering selling a similar item?

Discover its value with a complimentary estimate from our specialists.

More Information

How to sell

Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola, Il Parmigianino (1503-1540)
The Entombment (Second Version) (B. 5)
etching, circa 1527-31, without watermark, a very good impression of the first state (of two), printing strongly with little of the usual wear, with thread margins or trimmed on the platemark on three sides, trimmed to the subject into the blank space below, the sheet slightly creased, pale scattered foxing mostly visible verso, two small paper splits in the lower subject, a 7 mm. tear with small associated paper loss at the left sheet edge, the upper right corner torn and very skilfully re-attached and partially made-up, other minor defects
S. 312 x 240 mm.

Comte G. Archinto (1783-1861), Milan (L. 52).
Initials M.J.M., presumably Mary Jane Morgan (d. before 1886) (L. 1879).

Specialist note

'For his grandest composition, The Entombment, known in two versions, Parmigianino made something like twenty preparatory drawings. [After the first attempt ended in technical failure he]..was forced to copy it onto another plate...This is very much bolder in its approach: the tool is thicker, the biting is deeper...The print is full of restlessness and drama. This is one of Parmigianino's greatest achievements in all media, and it is fitting, given what we know of his character, that he should have abandoned printmaking soon after completing his masterpiece.'
(David Landau and Peter Parshall, The Renaissance Print, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1994, p. 269.)