''The Mystic Marriage of St Catherine'' is a c.1529 oil on panel painting of the mystical marriage of Saint Catherine by

Parmigianino Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola (11 January 150324 August 1540), also known as Francesco Mazzola or, more commonly, as Parmigianino (, , ; "the little one from Parma"), was an Italian Mannerist painter and printmaker active in Florence, Rome, B ...

, now in the National Gallery, London, who acquired it in 1974. It was engraved by

Giulio Bonasone Giulio Bonasone (c. 1498 – after 1574) (or ''Giulio de Antonio Buonasone'' or ''Julio Bonoso'') was an Italian painter and engraver born in Bologna. He possibly studied painting under Lorenzo Sabbatini, and painted a ''Purgatory'' for the ch ...

Provenance

Vasari Giorgio Vasari (, also , ; 30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian Renaissance Master, who worked as a painter, architect, engineer, writer, and historian, who is best known for his work '' The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculp ...

wrote of a "Madonna seen from the side, in a fair pose, with several other figures" made by Parmigianino for a saddler friend of his in

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language, Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 1 ...

. That work was first linked to the London work in 1784, though some art historians date it a few years earlier during the artist's time in Rome, which ended with the Sack of Rome in 1527. The London work is first recorded in inventories of the

Galleria Borghese The Galleria Borghese () is an art gallery in Rome, Italy, housed in the former Villa Borghese Pinciana. At the outset, the gallery building was integrated with its gardens, but nowadays the Villa Borghese gardens are considered a separate touris ...

in 1693 and 1750. In 1800 it was acquired by William Young Ottley, from whom it passed to the

Earl of Normanton Earl of Normanton is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1806 for Charles Agar, 1st Viscount Somerton, Archbishop of Dublin. He had already been created Baron Somerton, of Somerton in the County of Kilkenny, in 1795 and Visco ...

's collection at

Somerley House Somerley is a large Georgian Grade II* listed English country house that is situated in the civil parish of Ellingham and Harbridge with Ibsley in the New Forest district in Hampshire, England. It is 2 miles (3 km) west of the New For ...

Copies

Several copies of the painting survive – the best are in

Apsley House Apsley House is the London townhouse of the Dukes of Wellington. It stands alone at Hyde Park Corner, on the south-east corner of Hyde Park, facing south towards the busy traffic roundabout in the centre of which stands the Wellington Arch. I ...

, the

Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna The National Art Gallery of Bologna (''Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna'') is a museum in Bologna, Italy. It is located in the former Saint Ignatius Jesuit novitiate of the city's University district, and inside the same building that houses the ...

and the Museo Davia Bargellini. Another copy is still in a private collection – this lacks the oval window at the top but Mario Di Giampaolo argues that it is autograph copy and that the Apsley House work is a copy of it.

Bibliography

* Mario Di Giampaolo ed Elisabetta Fadda, ''Parmigianino'', Keybook, Santarcangelo di Romagna 2002.

External links

* {{Parmigianino category:Paintings by Parmigianino category:Paintings of children category:Collections of the National Gallery, London category:1529 paintings