GIROLAMO MAZZOLA BEDOLI | Design for a decorative scheme: a standing female figure, possibly Minerva; two bearded men, one possibly Marsyas

Nicolas Lanier (1588-1666), Londres (L. 2885) ; 
Pierre Crozat ? (1665-1740), Paris (numérotation en bas à droite : peut-être L. 3612) ; 
Richard Cosway (1742 ?-1821), Londres (L. 628) ; 
Francis Abbot, (2^e moitié du XIX^e siècle), Edimbourg (L. 970) ,
Sa vente, 22-26 janvier 1894, part du n^o 88 : 'Female in Armour and two other Figures-design for frieze', pen and bistre (comme Parmigianino) ;
Maurice Delacre (1862-1938), Gand (L. 747a : une étiquette rouge portant une inscription à l'encre brune, « n°267 », sur l'ancien passe-partout, en bas à droite) ; 
M^e Pierre Dupin (1893-1988), Onesse et Laharie (Landes) ; 
Acquis par échange en juin 1976.

Rennes, 2012, n°4 (notice par Éric Pagliano)

Laid down on an old mount. Some creases from the middle of the left margin to the center, and one running down from the center to the bottom margin. At the bottom center, near the margin, a few smaller creases. At the top center a small loss with a small tear. Some cracks in the middle of the sheet, and some rubbing all over the surface. Sold unframed.
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It is hardly surprising that this fascinating sheet with its distinguished English provenance, most probably relating to a still unidentified façade or wall decoration, bears an old attribution to Parmigianino.  David Ekserdjian, on the basis of an image, has, however, kindly suggested that it should instead be given to Girolamo Mazzola Bedoli, stressing the similarities between the female figure of Minerva to the left of the Adrien sheet and an Allegorical figure of Fortitude in a drawing on the art market in 1975, which was subsequently included by Mario di Giampaolo in his monograph on Bedoli.¹  Both these sheets are executed in the same media, and with the same delicate handling of the pen and ink, so characteristic of Bedoli’s drawings.   We are also grateful to Mary Vaccaro, who – also working from an image – has endorsed the attribution to Bedoli, noting the delicacy and elegance of the execution, and observing that the way that ‘the contours are picked out with broken marks in pen and ink finds analogy in a number of his more securely attributed drawings.’  Furthermore, Vaccaro likens the head of the bearded man to the left of the present sheet to the heads of the shepherds in Bedoli’s Nativity, a pen and ink drawing with brown wash, now in the Uffizi,² and notes that the vegetation and fruits seen here can be compared with a drawing in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, representing a decorative scheme with female figures and putti.³

The two male figures are also extremely similar in execution to the bearded apostles in the foreground of a drawing in the Ordine Costantiniano di San Giorgio, Parma, which relates to the fresco representing the Pentecost, which Bedoli executed in the south apse vault of Santa Maria della Steccata, in his native Parma.⁴  This commission was entrusted to the artist in October 1546, and the fresco is one of his most spectacular achievements.  Bedoli’s fascinating style was based primarily on that of Parmigianino, but he was also influenced by Correggio’s atmospheric forms, and, after his experience of working in Mantua, by the more sculptural style of Giulio Romano. 

In 1529 Bedoli married a cousin of Parmigianino’s, and by 1538 he had himself adopted the well known Mazzola family name that his mentor and wife both shared.  In the judgement of Vasari, still valid today, Bedoli was the natural artistic successor of Parmigianino, and after the latter’s early death he inherited the Mazzola workshop; the old attribution on the Adrien drawing bears telling witness to this artistic debt.

The Adrien drawing will be published in a forthcoming article by David Ekserdjian: ‘Vent’anni dopo: postille alla monografia di Mario Di Giampaolo (1997)’, in E. Fadda, Girolamo Mazzola Bedoli (1508? – 1569): ‘eccellente pittore, e cortese e gentile oltre modo’, Viadana 2018.

 

^1. M. Di Giampaolo, Girolamo Bedoli, 1500-1569, Florence 1997, pp. 180-181, no. 99 reproduced

^2. Florence, Uffizi, inv. no. 13619 F; Ibid., p. 165, no. 76, reproduced

^3. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv. no. RP-T 1991-11; Ibid., p. 153, no. 57, reproduced 

^4. Parma, Ordine Costantiniano di San Giorgio, inv. no. 96; Ibid., p. 204, no. 127, reproduced p. 205