Madonna with the Long Neck, by Parmigianino (1534–1540)

Francesco Mazzola, known as Parmigianino, was a precocious artist trained in Parma under the influence of Correggio. He studied the works of Michelangelo and Raphael in Rome, developing an elegant and refined Mannerist style. The "Madonna with the Long Neck" was commissioned in 1534 by Elena Baiardi Tagliaferri for the church of Santa Maria dei Servi in Parma. Although the artist promised to complete it in five months, the work was still unfinished at his death in 1540. It was exhibited nonetheless in 1542, with an inscription justifying its incompleteness.

The Virgin, depicted with elongated forms and an exaggeratedly long neck, gazes at the sleeping Jesus on her lap, prefiguring the Passion of Christ. The Infant Jesus is portrayed at an unusually advanced age, similar to that of a six-year-old, but with the baldness typical of newborns. Despite the sacred theme, Parmigianino introduces sensual elements in the elegant figures and clinging drapery of the Virgin.

The painting entered the Medici collections in 1698. A pink curtain forms the backdrop for the seated Madonna, whose long neck gives the work its name. The right side of the painting, characterized by an empty area, features a row of tall columns without capitals and an emaciated figure who could be a prophet or Saint Jerome. Next to it is a disembodied foot, perhaps belonging to Saint Francis, indicating the work's incompleteness.

The iconographic choice is precise: the column symbolizes purity, as indicated in the Song of Songs, and the amphora, a symbol of the Virgin, prefigures the Crucifixion. The painting, sophisticated in content and formal, remains a perfect example of Mannerist art.

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