Parmigianino and Andrea Baiardi: figuring Petrarchan beauty In Renaissance Parma * MARY VACCARO In her seminal essay 'On beautiful women, Parmigianino. Pl'lrarchisl11a, and the vernacular style', Elizabeth Cropper first began to investigate the C'Omplex associations between Petrarchan lyric convention and Renaissance painting, especially with regard to Parmigianino (1503-40).' She related the Aladanna oj Ihe LOllg JI/eck to Agnolo Firenzuola's Dialaga delle belle;:,:c delle dOllne, a treatise that was completed in 1542 after Parmigianino's death and first published in 1548. Cropper's intention was 'not to suggest that the painter provided a model for the writer or vice versa', but that they both created ideal types based on a Petrarchan descriptive tradition that was widely diffused in the sixteenth century, particularly in Clrmentine Rome where Parmigianino and Firenzuola had both worked. Crnpper also pointf'd to the iconographical implications of Parmigia- nino's beautiful Madonna, alluding to the Christian inter- pretation of the Bride in the Song of Songs, the Old Testament epithalamium thought to have been written by King Solomon. Female beauty that ('lev'ates desire towards heaven was a source of inspiration for Solomon and Petrarch alike, as was recognized in the Renaissance. This essay investigates thc filsion of the cult of the Virgin with Petrarchan beauty and the intersection of sacred and temporal ideas of beauty 111 Parmigianino's Marian Imagery. The ties betwccn Parmigianino and Prlrarrhi.m1O ('an also be clarified by shifting attention from the vogue for Petrarch in Rome to Parma. This essay explores specific links between the artist and the Petrarchan tradition in his native town of Parma, where PetralTh's legacy appears to have been strong throughout the Renaissance. The town could boast historical ties to the poet, who had not only held Parmese ecclesiastical appointments but also lived there for a period of his itinerant life. Parmigianino transcribed lines of Petrarch's poetry in drawings that can be connected to projects executed in Parma. Furthermore, the father of two of the artist's most eminent patrons, including the patron of the j\Iadall1la d lite Long JY'1'[/;, was a local poet named Andrea Baiardi. His poems represent and elaborate Petrarchan descriptive convention in ways that illuminatc Parmigianino's art (for example, the ampliticatia of the female neck). Baiardi's poetic strategies of visualizing female beauty, as well as his handling of religious themes, afford a new context for appreciating Pannigianino's creative achievement, as manifest in three works dating to his final years in Parma, at least one of which im'olved Baiardi patronage: a IVIarian fresco cycle, an altarpiecc of a beautifill and a portrait of an unidentified woman. The relation of tcxt to image pro\"es 1110re evocative than literal, howcver, for Parmigianino ultimately invented his own visual j)()('Sia. *** The interrelationship of painting and poetry in the represen- tation of ideal beauty bespeaks a central preoccupation or sixteenth-century art theory and criticism.' The term jmesia was used to describe ('ertain paintings, underscoring the extent to which a pi('tUlT might fimction as an independent poetic invention rather than simply the illustration of a literary text. 3 Lodm'i('o Dolce's Dialoga della jJittllrrt, first published in Venice in 1557. defines painting as the imitation of nature but insists that the painter should surpass nature in one respect, notably. by displaying in a single human figure - especially a female figure the entire perfection or beauty that nature scarcely contains in a thousand bodies.· Dolce recommend, that painters consult poetry for perfect models of female loveliness and cites the example of Petrarch. who is praised as 'a wonderful and refined painter of beauties and virtues of the Lady Laura' ('mirabile e gentil pittore bellezze e delle virtll di Laura'). J In the Rime .ljHli"SI' Petrarc h allusively portrays his absent beloved Laura through repeated and scattered invocations of her physical charms and unassail- able virtue. His desmjJlia persol/al' (golden hair. resplcndent eyes, ebony brows, lustrous skin, ruby lips, ,,,,hite hand and neck) established an influential canon of female beauty lor poets and painters alike.'; Dolce compares Petrarch to Raphael (1483I5c?0), who actually wrote Petrarchan verse, and who was thought to have been born and to have died on 6 April, a key symbolic date in Petrarch's life.? According to Dolce, Raphael's delieatF ornamented style approximates that of PetraITh in terms of a shared indeflnabJe element of charm (11cl/ll.ltd) that affords the spectator infinite delight. H Such critical vocabu- lary reflects a wider con('crn in sixteenth,century art theory and practice with the affective role of beauty, a discourse ''YORD & IM.\GE. VOL. 17. NO. 3,JCLY-SEPTEl\IBER 2001 243 W(lrd & ISS:\" o::?GG :.!CHli Taylnr & Francis Ltd http://\\ \\"\\