Madonna with the Long Neck
Mary with an unnaturally large Christ Child in her lap. Parmigianino stretches bodies and proportions on purpose – elegance comes before naturalism.
The tiny prophet at lower right and the lone column make the space confusing. That is just what Mannerism wanted.
Parmigianino’s real name was Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola, and he came from Parma. He received the commission in 1534 from Elena Baiardi, who wanted an altarpiece for her family’s chapel in the church of Santa Maria dei Servi in Parma. The painter worked on the picture for several years but never managed to finish it before he died in 1540. An inscription on the step at lower right, added later, records that the work remained unfinished.
Mary sits in the centre and is much larger than the other figures. She has a long neck, slender fingers and a small, elegant head. In her lap lies a large Christ Child who seems to be slipping down. The child is pale and lifeless, and his pose recalls images in which Mary holds the dead Christ. On the left several angels crowd together, and one of them holds a vase. Mary’s body forms a long, sinuous shape, and her hand rests against her breast with splayed, outstretched fingers.
At lower right stands a small figure with a scroll, usually interpreted as a prophet. Beside him is a row of columns, but only one column has been fully painted. The distance between Mary and the prophet is impossible to grasp, and the space lacks any clear logic. This is part of the picture’s deliberate confusion.
The painting is one of the clearest examples of Mannerism. The Mannerists did not want to imitate nature like the masters of the High Renaissance. Instead they sought elegance, artifice and surprise. Bodies were elongated, proportions distorted and compositions unbalanced. The picture was aimed at an audience that knew art well and could appreciate the breaking of the rules.
The colours are cool and sophisticated, with pale pink, blue-grey and white. The surface is smooth and glossy, and the outlines are sharp. Light falls softly on Mary’s face and on the child’s body. The picture is painted in oil on a wooden panel just over two metres high. Some areas, such as the row of columns, are only sketched in and show how the painting was built up.
The neck and the column have been linked to images in the Song of Songs in the Old Testament, where the bride’s neck is compared to a tower of ivory. In the Middle Ages the Song of Songs was read as an image of Mary. The vase held by the angel has also been given symbolic interpretations. All these interpretations are possible but not certain.
The painting hung in the church in Parma until it was bought by the Medici family at the end of the 17th century. Today it is in the Uffizi in Florence. For a long time Mannerism was seen as a decline after the High Renaissance, but in the 20th century the style was reassessed. The Madonna with the Long Neck is now regarded as one of the most original works of the 16th century. It is often cited as a textbook example when the style is explained.