Parmigianino Altarpiece Back On View After 10-Year Conservation

Following a decade of conservation work, an Italian Mannerist altarpiece by Parmigianino is finally returning to public view. An exhibition dedicated to the work opens at the National Gallery of Art in London on December 5, 2024. It runs through March 9, 2025.

Parmigianino completed the Italian Mannerist masterwork known as The Vision of Saint Jerome in 1527 at age 23. According to 16th-century historian Giorgio Vasari, imperial soldiers stormed the artist’s workshop during the 1527 Sack of Rome. They were allegedly so impressed by his work on the altarpiece that they allowed him to keep painting it.

The upcoming exhibition of The Vision of Saint Jerome is part of the National Gallery’s 200th anniversary celebrations. It presents the Parmigianino altarpiece for the first time after 10 years of conservation. It will also be the first exhibition dedicated to the painting since it was acquired by the National Gallery in 1826. The Vision of Saint Jerome will be exhibited alongside several preparatory drawings by Parmigianino that reveal his painstaking process.

“It will be such a thrill to have this masterwork back on our Gallery walls, its visionary qualities once again on display to the public,” said Dr. Matthias Wivel, curator of 16th-century Italian paintings at the National Gallery. “It is also thrilling to be able to display alongside a selection of Parmigianino’s outstanding preparatory drawings, allowing us all to partake vicariously in his dynamic, fluid, and ever-shifting creative process. I have little doubt that this show will be a transporting experience.”

The Vision of Saint Jerome

The Vision of Saint Jerome was originally commissioned to decorate a burial chapel in Rome. However, political turmoil following the Sack of Rome prevented the installation of the Parmigianino painting. The oblong altarpiece is divided into two narrative sections. In the lower half, Saint John the Baptist—indicated by a long cross, animal skin drapery, and a baptismal washbasin tied to his belt—engages the viewer, pointing towards the Madonna and Child with an unnaturally long finger. Saint Jerome lies sleeping on the ground alongside his own identifying symbols: a cardinal hat and a skull. Above, the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child burst forth from the dark clouds with a beam of white light. The young Christ Child extends his foot with an air of mischief.

Characteristic of Italian Mannerism, Parmigianino crafted an intentionally ambiguous spacial composition for The Vision of Saint Jerome. He also distorted and elongated the figures—not because he wasn’t technically competent, but rather to explore the aesthetic potential of anatomy beyond the idealized representation of the Renaissance. Parmigianino made several chalk and ink studies to determine the final composition of The Vision of Saint Jerome. Many of these studies will be reunited for the first time at the National Gallery’s exhibition of the work.

The artist Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola (1503‒1540) was born in the Northern Italian city of Parma, thus earning the nickname Parmigianino. He was a child prodigy once referred to as “Raphael reborn.” By age 21, Parmiagianino had moved to Rome and personally impressed Pope Clement VII with his early work. As the art of the High Italian Renaissance plateaued, Parmigianino gravitated towards a more stylized mode of representation. He leveraged his technical expertise and art historical knowledge to experiment with spatial organization and anatomy in new—and sometimes strange and unsettling—ways. His innovations contributed to the development and dominance of Mannerism in 16th-century Italy.