In his wonderful essay on Mannerism, John Shearman defines Mannerism as "the stylish style" (p. 19), a style "drenched in maniera and, conversely should not be marked by qualities inimical to it, such as strain, brutality, violence, and overt passion. We require, in fact, poise, refinement, and sophistication, and works of art that are polished, rarified, and idealized away from the natural:hot-house plants, cultured most carefully. Mannerism should, by tradition, speak a silver-tongued language of articulate, if unnatural beauty." Vasari's discussion of Parmigianino, who was himself only 7 years older than Vasari, shows how precisely Shearman has caught the essence of Mannerism: "Among the numerous Lombards endowed with grace and vivacity of imagination in painting and the power of making beautiful landscapes, the first place must be conceded to Francesco Mazzuoli, who was liberally endowed with the richest gifts of a painter, giving his figures a certain sweetness and lightness of pose peculiar to him. His heads possess every necessary quality, so that his style ["maniera"] has been much imitated for its charm, and his works will always be valued and himself honored by students of design [a term combining both compositional ability and draftsmanship much discussed in Vasari's Life of Michelangelo, for him the culmination of art development bestowed upon art and the world by God]." As David Ekserdjian argues, "regardless of the universally recognized merits of his paintings, it is first and foremost the beauty, richness, and range of his graphic works that makes him one of the most distinguished but also endlessly surprising artists of the Italian Renaissance" (Ekserdjian, in Franklin, p. 47).

This is an interesting moment for lovers of both Parmigianino and Old Master drawings generally. The new catalogue raisonné of Parmigianino's drawings by Beguin et al—the first since A. E. Popham's magisterial study published by the Yale University Press in 1971—adds 151 new drawings to the corpus of drawings included in Popham, almost all of which are presently in major museum collections as Parmigianino. While the sheer number is surprising, the process is not: collectors or their estates put works up for sale, the experts examine them, and confirm or reject them as by the artist. Partly this may be a consequence of the inevitable transfer of privately-held works into public collections, part of it is a consequence of our additional knowledge: each new study changes our understanding of an artist to some degree, each new work accepted into the canon lets us see others that suddenly have a new context in which we can see them, and seeing them with their peers, we may decide that is where they belong (or not).

Selected Bibliography: Carmen C. Bambach et al, Corregio & Parmigianino: Master Draughtsmen of the Renaissance (London: British Museum, 2000); Sylvie Beguin, Mario Di Giampaolo, and Mary Vaccaro, Parmigianino: The Drawings (Turin: Umberto Allemandi, 2000); Diane De Grazia, Corregio and His Legacy: Sixteenth-Century Emilian Drawings (Washington: National Gallery of Art, 1984); David Ekserdjian, Parmigianino (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006); David Franklin, The Art of Parmigianino with an essay by David Ekserdjian (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003); Sydney J. Freedberg, Parmigianino (Cambridge: Harvard University Press 1950); Mario Di Giampaolo, Parmigianino: Catalogo completo (Florence: Cantini, 1991); Cecil Gould, Parmigianino (NY: Abbeville Press, 1994); A. E. Popham, Drawings of Parmigianino (NY: Beechhurst, 1953); Paula Rossi, L'Opera Completa del Parmigianino (Milano: Rizzoli Editore, 1980); Lucia Fornari Schianchi, ed. Parmigianino e Il Manierismo Europeo: Atti Del Convegno Internazionale Di Studi Parma,13-15 Giugno 2002 (Milano: Silvana Editoriale, 2002 ); John Shearman, Mannerism (NY: Penguin, 1967, 1973); Mary Vaccaro, Parmigianino the Paintings (Turin: Umberto Allemandi, 2002); Giorgio Vasari, The Lives of the Painters, Sculptors and Architects, 4 vols (London: Everyman's Library, 1963; his Life of Parmigianino is in volume 3, pages 6-14).

Although Parmigianino has left us "an exceptionally large corpus of hundreds of drawings" (Ekserdjian, in Franklin, p. 31), he made only 15 prints; Master F. P. made 26 etchings (some signed F. P. as if by Parmigianino), and Andrea Schiavone, who introduced Mannerism into Venice, made an additional 87 in the style of Parmigianino. For Parmigianino's prints and his influence as a printmaker, see Henri Zerner, The Illustrated Bartsch 32: Italian Masters of the 16th Century: Parmigianino, Master F. P. , Meldolla, Schiavone, Titian, Marconi, Tintoretto, Bresciano, Franco, P. Farinati, H. Farinati, del Moro, Fontana, Valentinis (NY: Abaris Books, 1979).