Standing Female Figure and Ornamental Framework

Standing Female Figure and Ornamental Framework

Girolamo Mazzola Bedoli

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Lively drawn with brush and brown wash, over black chalk, this relatively finished study was executed by Bedoli as a preparatory drawing for the standing female allegory (or Canephora) frescoed in the north barrel vault of the church of Santa Maria della Staccata in Parma. As one of the artist’s most important and vast commissions, the fresco cycle of the Steccata was realized by Bedoli over two decades from 1547. The figure featured on the present sheet relates with three other drawings (Uffizi, Florence Inv. 13468 F, Salvi collection, Parma and Private collection, Rome) to the ornamental frame around the scene with the Pentecost, which the artist completed by 1553. In developing his sequence of standing, elegantly draped female figures, Bedoli clearly channeled the celebrated motif of the 'Wise and Foolish Virgins' painted by Parmigianino in the same church of the Steccata between 1531 and 1539. The composition was squared for proportional enlargement of the design. Until the hand of Bedoli was recognized by Konrad Oberhuber and Mario di Giampaolo, the sheet was erroneously attributed by an early collector to "Dionisio /Calvart.", as proven by an old inscription on the recto. (C.C.B.)

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Standing Female Figure and Ornamental FrameworkStanding Female Figure and Ornamental FrameworkStanding Female Figure and Ornamental FrameworkStanding Female Figure and Ornamental FrameworkStanding Female Figure and Ornamental Framework

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.