Review |
All auctions | ||
Record bids of all auctions | ||
Survey of artists |
3163
Mazzola, Francesco called Parmigianino after
Probably German or Dutch 17th/
«Bogenschnitzender Amor (bow carving cupid)».
Tempera on canvas. Unsigned. Verso on the stretcher remains of an old label inscribed badly legible «Correggio» and «Stich v. Bartolozzi (engraving by Bartolozzi)» as well as typographically numbered «120».
H 87,
The painting goes back to the same named work of Parmigianino's (1503 - 1540) at the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna with the inventory number Gemäldegalerie 275. Parmigianino's mannerist pictorial invention of the bow carving Cupid, who turns to the viewer over his left shoulder as if by chance and at whose feet two erotes wrestle while symbolising the dispute between desire and longing or between heavenly and earthly love, was very successful in numerous copper engravings by different engravers across all of Europe. As a result, various copies and imitations by artists from a wide variety of cultural landscapes have survived to this day. The genius of Parmigianino's composition is also shown by the fact that the baroque grand master Peter Paul Rubens (1577 - 1640) used it in his painting «Amor schnitzt den Bogen (cupid carving the bow)» in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich as well, inventory number 1304.
The inscription «Correggio» on the reverse can be explained by the fact that Rudolf II had acquired the original together with the famous painting of the «Entführung des Ganymed (abduction of Ganymede)» by Correggio (Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, inventory number Gemäldegalerie 276) and that both paintings were mistankenly marked as works by Correggio when they were later displayed in the Belvedere. An error that has long since been corrected, it continues in the case of imitative engravings such as that of Francesco Bartolozzi (1728 - 1815) and reflects the level of knowledge of the writer of the verso label at that time.
Having not lost any of its erotic tension, this variation can probably be ascribed to a German or Dutch master, who perfectly reproduced the content of the painting.
Condition report