Standing Female Figure in Armor Drawing Her Sword (Minerva or Bellona)

Parmigianino (Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola) Italian

ca. 1535–38

Not on view

This figure sketch shows the goddess Minerva in plumed helmet and skirted Classical armor standing in three-quarter view facing left about to draw her sword from the scubbard. The drawings is thought to have been preparatory for the statuette of a Classical warrior depicted as a detail at right in Parmigianino’s Portrait of Pier Maria Rossi, Count of San Secondo dated to 1535–38 (Museo del Prado, Madrid), for which another related study is in the Museo di Capodimonte, Naples. In comparison to the painted detail, however, the present sketch shows the figure as quite evidently female and with broader bodily proportions. As is typical of Parmigianino's late drawings, the present sketch is executed with bold, curved parallel hatching done with a fine pen. It is exactly comparable in this to the small-scale pen sketches of 1534-40, of which several related to Parmigianino's late masterpieces were shown in the Museum's 2000-2001 exhibition, "Correggio and Parmigianino Master Draughtsmen of the Renaissance." Closely similar examples of this technique of pen drawing are found in the studies for St. Jerome (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford), the sketches of a Classical statue on the verso of a sheet with ideas for the Madonna of the Long Neck (Pierpont Morgan Library, New York), and two small sheets in Windsor, one portraying Classical heads and the other a composition of Saturn and Philyra (RL inv. 0526 and 0563).

Artwork Details

Title: Standing Female Figure in Armor Drawing Her Sword (Minerva or Bellona)
Artist: Parmigianino (Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola) (Italian, Parma 1503–1540 Casalmaggiore)
Date: ca. 1535–38
Medium: Pen and brown ink, over traces of black chalk
Dimensions: sheet: 7 13/16 x 4 5/16 in. (19.8 x 10.9 cm)
Classification: Drawings
Credit Line: Anonymous Gift, 2006
Object Number: 2006.393.21
Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

In the same medium

From the same time and place

A slider containing 5 items.
Press the down key to skip to the last item.

Part the First, Containing Ten Prints Engraved in Chiaroscuro...In the Collection of John Skippe, Esq.

Multiple artists/makers

n.d.

Venus and Cupid

Parmigianino (Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola)

The Marriage of St. Catherine of Alexandria

Parmigianino (Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola)

Research Resources

The Met provides unparalleled resources for research and welcomes an international community of students and scholars. The Met's Open Access API is where creators and researchers can connect to the The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.

To request images under copyright and other restrictions, please use this Image Request form.

Feedback

We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.