Parmigianino, whose real name is Francesco Mazzola, was the eighth child of Filippo Mazzola and one Donatella Abbati.

His father died of the plague two years after Parmigianino's birth, and the children had been raised by their uncles, Michele and Pier Ilario, who according to Vasari were modestly talented artists.

In 1515, his uncle had received a commission from Nicolò Zangrandi for the decoration of a chapel in San Giovanni Evangelista; a work later completed by a young Parmigianino.

By the age of eighteen, he had already completed the Bardi Altarpiece.

In 1521, Parmigianino had been sent to Viadana (along with painter Girolamo Bedoli, who is to marry his cousin) to escape the wars between the French, Imperial, and papal armies.

In Viadana, paints two panels in tempera, depicting Saint Francis for the church of the Frati de' Zoccoli, and the Mystical Marriage of Saint Catherine for San Pietro.

The early works of Parmigianino, painted in or near Parma, from which Francesco Mazzola takes his name,include frescoes of the legend of Diana and Actaeon, painted in 1523 when Parmigianino is twenty, for the Cittadella di San Vitale in Fontanellato.

He has also worked in San Giovanni and met Correggio, who was at work on the fresco decorations of the cupola.

Parmigianino, recently arrived in Rome from Parma in 1525, has painted the daringly foreshortened Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror on a specially prepared convex panel in order to mimic the curve of the mirror used.

The work is mentioned by Late Renaissance art biographer Giorgio Vasari, who lists it as one of three small-size paintings that the artist brought to Rome with him in 1525.

Vasari relays that the self-portrait was created by Parmigianino as an example to showcase his talent to potential customers.

The sack of Rome temporarily ends the city's role as a source of patronage and compels artists to travel to other centers in Italy, France, and Spain.

Il Rosso Fiorentino, whose Dead Christ with Angels typically combines the painter’s sculpturesque solidity with an expressive Mannerist aesthetic, flees for the north of Italy.

Parmigianino, whose major achievement during his stay in the city is Madonna and Child with Saints John the Baptist and Jerome, flees Rome for Bologna.

Florentine sculptor and architect Jacopo Sansovino moves to Venice.

This sack of Rome marks the end of the Roman Renaissance, damages the papacy's prestige and frees Charles V's hands to act against the Reformation in Germany and against the rebellious German princes allied with Luther.

The population of Rome has dropped from some fifty-five thousand before the attack, to a meager ten thousand.

An estimated six thousand to twelve thousand people have been murdered.

Many Imperial soldiers have also died in the past several months from diseases caused by the large number of unburied dead bodies in the city.

The pillage will only end when, after eight months, the food runs out, there is no one left to ransom and plague appears.

In commemoration of the Sack and the Guard's bravery, recruits to the Swiss Guard are sworn in on May 6 every year.

Parmigianino, having fled Rome for Bologna during the sack of 1527, resides here for nearly three years.

At around 1528, he had painted the Madonna and Child with Saints (Pinacoteca, Bologna), then later in 1528, he painted Madonna con la Rosa (Dresden) and Madonna with Saint Zachariah (Uffizi).

By 1530 Parmigianino has returned to Parma.

Rosso Fiorentino and the Château de Fontainebleau (1530)

In 1530, Rosso Fiorentino, a prominent Florentine painter who had trained alongside Pontormo under Andrea del Sarto, arrives at the French court of King Francis I. Having fled Rome after the traumatic Sack of 1527, Rosso brings with him the sophisticated artistic ideals of the Italian High Renaissance and the emerging Mannerist style.

Under the supervision of Gilles Le Breton, architect of the Château de Fontainebleau's ambitious renovation begun in 1528, Rosso contributes significantly to the château's ongoing transformation. Le Breton, entrusted with the renovation, preserves the medieval donjon and integrates it into the new Cour Ovale (Oval Courtyard), built upon the original castle foundations. This innovative structure includes the imposing Porte Dorée (Golden Gate) to the south and the monumental Renaissance staircase, the portique de Serlio, designed to grant majestic access to the royal apartments on the northern side.

Artistic Contributions and Influences

Rosso Fiorentino's arrival signals a vital infusion of Italian Renaissance and early Mannerist styles into French art. His artistic journey had previously led him to Rome in 1523, where the monumental art of Michelangelo and Raphaeldeeply influenced him. This Roman experience reshaped his style, inspiring emotionally charged compositions characterized by elongated figures and dramatic gestures, exemplified by his painting The Dead Christ with Angels.

Rosso’s tenure at Fontainebleau is marked by collaboration with fellow Italian master Francesco Primaticcio. Together, they pioneer a distinctive style known as the School of Fontainebleau, merging elegant Italian classicism with vibrant decorative exuberance. Among Rosso's significant contributions is the design of richly decorative frescoes, stucco reliefs, and paintings adorning the palace interiors, establishing Fontainebleau as a paramount example of French Renaissance art and architecture.

Long-term Significance and Influence

Rosso Fiorentino’s arrival in France marks a pivotal moment in the transmission of Italian Renaissance ideas to Northern Europe. His contributions, alongside Primaticcio, lay the foundations of the School of Fontainebleau, which profoundly shapes French court art and architecture throughout the sixteenth century and beyond. The aesthetic ideals developed here not only dominate artistic tastes in France but also become influential across Europe, heralding the onset of French artistic preeminence in the later Renaissance and Baroque periods.

Parmigianino returns to Parma in 1531 and accepts a commission to paint frescoes in the Church of the Steccata.

The influential Parmigianino, his art distinguished by a new emphasis on ornament and grace, begins his Mannerist masterpiece, “Madonna with the Long Neck,” in 1534 for the funerary chapel of Francesco Tagliaferri in Parma, but it will remained incomplete on Parmigianino's death in 1540.

Vibrant color, elongated forms, and distorted spatial relationships characterize the thirty-one-year-old painter’s supremely elegant, artificial style.

Parmigianino’s numerous drawings and engravings, even more than his paintings, lead to his widespread influence in Italy, despite his death in 1540 at the age of thirty-seven.

His supremely elegant, artificial style, characterized by vibrant color, elongated forms, and distorted spatial relationships, helps to usher in the Mannerist style.