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Getty Museum to acquire masterpiece by Parmigianino

Parmigianino - Virgin with Child

Virgin with Child, St. John the Baptist, and Mary Magdalene
(about 1530-40).
Parmigianino (Francesco Mazzola, Italian, 1503-1540).
Oil on paper, laid down on panel, 75.5 x 59.7 cm (29 ½ x 23 ½ in.)
Courtesy of Sotheby’s.

Getty Museum to acquire masterpiece by Parmigianino The J. Paul Getty Museum announced its intention to acquire Virgin with Child, St. John the Baptist, and Mary Magdalene (about 1530-40) by Parmigianino.]]>

September 2, 2016, source: J. Paul Getty Museum

Extremely well-preserved, the painting is a supreme example of the artist’s mature Mannerist style and represents sixteenth-century painting at its finest.

The painting is documented in the famed Barberini collection in Rome in the mid-seventeenth century and was recently on loan to the Getty Museum where it was shown alongside works by Pontormo and Bronzino. Before that, the painting was on long-term loan to the National Gallery in London.

The acquisition is subject to an export license being granted by the Arts Council England. The export application is being filed by the seller’s representative, Sotheby’s, on the Getty’s behalf.

“This is a rare opportunity for us to enrich our collection with a masterpiece from one of the most accomplished Italian artists of the sixteenth century,” says Timothy Potts, director of the J. Paul Getty Museum. “Paintings of this importance and in such superb condition very rarely become available on the market these days. It will make a spectacular addition to our galleries in the context of other great sixteenth-century paintings by Pontormo and other masters who transformed the classicizing naturalism of the Renaissance into visions of more mannered and theatrical elegance.”

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Getty Museum to acquire masterpiece by Parmigianino