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Virgin and Child with Saint John the Baptist

Virgin and Child with Saint John the Baptist
 (1527-1530)

Medium
chiaroscuro woodcut printed from two blocks in green and grey inks
Measurements
19.1 × 23.4 cm (image and sheet, trimmed to block mark)
Place/s of Execution
Bologna, Italy
Catalogue/s Raisonné
Takahatake 26; Bartsch XII.56.12
Accession Number
2294-4
Departments
International Prints / International Prints and Drawings
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Felton Bequest, 1950
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of the Joe White Bequest
Gallery location
16th & 17th Century Gallery - Painting and Sculpture
Mezzanine linked to Level 1, NGV International
About this work

Chiaroscuro woodcuts entered a new phase when Parmigianino, the precociously talented exponent of Mannerism, fled Rome following the sack of the city in 1527 and established a workshop in Bologna at the age of twenty-four. There he collaborated with Ugo da Carpi and engaged the printer Antonio da Trento to produce prints, including chiaroscuro woodcuts. Ugo instructed Antonio in the chiaroscuro technique and his two-block prints capture the fluent, graceful draughtsmanship of Parmigianino. This woodcut, which shows an intimate grouping of the Madonna holding the Christ Child and the young Saint John the Baptist, is one of the blocks Antonio produced in close collaboration with Parmigianino.