A Putto Seated on a Frame

A Putto Seated on a Frame

Girolamo Mazzola Bedoli

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Due to his expeditious production of paintings, Girolamo Mazzola Bedoli became a painter of note in the competitive artistic arena of Parma during the late 1530s and 40s. A native of Viadana (like Parmigianino, his better-known master and kinsman by marriage), Bedoli was considered Parmigianino's successor in the Parmese school, according to Giorgio Vasari, Bedoli's first biographer (1568). This rapidly executed drawing fragment is typical of the artist. He was a particularly gifted draftsman, perhaps more so than as a painter, evident here from his luminous use of wash and his bold control of line, as well as his ease in portraying the foreshortened pose of the putto. As has recently been proposed, this delightful drawing is connected to one of Bedoli's most important projects, the frescoes in the choir of Parma Cathedral of about 1538-40, which represent a dazzling composition of figures set within illusionistically painted architecture. (Carmen C. Bambach, 2009)

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A Putto Seated on a FrameA Putto Seated on a FrameA Putto Seated on a FrameA Putto Seated on a FrameA Putto Seated on a Frame

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.