parmigianino as narcissus

PARMIGIANINO AS NARCISSUSAuthor(s): Norman E. LandSource: Source: Notes in the History of Art, Vol. 16, No. 4 (Summer 1997), pp. 25-30Published by: Ars Brevis Foundation, Inc.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23205150 .

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PARMIGIANIN0 AS NARCISSUS

Norman E. Land

In his life of Parmigianino (Francesco Maz

zuoli), Vasari says that the artist turned to

alchemy, seeking "to pry into the secrets of

congealing mercury in order to become richer than Nature and Heaven had made him."1 Ignoring the art of painting, Vasari

explains, Parmigianino became obsessed by his new vocation, even to the point of losing his wits over it. Some twentieth-century art historians have echoed Vasari's psychologi cal interpretation of Parmigianino's aban donment of painting. For example, one scholar has linked the artist's alleged seduc tion by alchemy late in his life and his Self Portrait in a Convex Mirror (Fig. 1, Kunst historisches Museum, Vienna), painted in

1524, when the artist was twenty years old. The argument is that Parmigianino's self

portrait is evidence of a narcissistic fixation

(in the traditional psychoanalytic sense of the term), which is consistent with his sub

sequent surrender to the "unreality" of al

chemy.2 In other words, the artist's seduc tion by alchemy, which "absorbed his

energy, as did Narcissus's obsession with his own image," echoes the self-absorption implied in his self-portrait. There are, how

ever, several other, quite different ways in

which Parmigianino and his work, specifi cally his Self-Portrait, may be "narcis

sistic."

Early in his life of the artist, Vasan tells

the story of Parmigianino's desire to travel

to Rome to see the works of the great artists

there, especially those by Raphael and Mi

chelangelo.3 He told two uncles, who were his guardians, of his wish, and they advised

him to take some examples of his art with him in order to introduce himself to Roman

society and to demonstrate his abilities as an artist. In response to his uncles' advice, Vasari says, Parmigianino made three works: a Virgin with the Christ child taking fruit from an angel, identifiable as the Holy Family in the Museo del Prado, Madrid;4 an old man with hairy arms, which remains

untraceable; and a self-portrait, which is

probably the self-portrait in Vienna (Fig. 1).

Vasan further relates that Parmigianino painted the self-portrait "in order to investi

gate the subtleties of the art." The painter noticed that a convex barber's mirror pro duces certain bizarre effects, making doors and the beams of ceilings seem twisted and other parts of buildings recede in a strange manner. Parmigianino, capriciously wishing for his own enjoyment to counterfeit those bizarre effects, had a panel made in the

shape of a convex mirror. He then repro duced all that he saw in the mirror, includ

ing himself. The artist's success in counter

feiting nature was so complete in this

painting, Vasari says, that there was no dif ference between fact and fiction, between the actual convex mirror and Parmigian ino's painting of it.

Although Vasari's account of the Self Portrait might well be a fiction, it is, never

theless, valuable criticism.5 In the back

ground of the painting, behind Parmigian ino, who gazes steadily out toward the

viewer, the curving beam in the center of the ceiling, the bent window in the left wall,



26

Fig. 1 Parmigianino, Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror. 1524. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. (Photo: Art Resource)



27

his desire to imitate its curious reflection. He was also subject to the profound and

widespread attraction that reflections had for Renaissance artists.

the misshapened doorway to the right, and, in the foreground and middle ground, the artist's enlarged right hand and his seem

ingly undistorted head and shoulders—all echo the bizarre effects that would be pro duced were the same scene reflected in an actual convex mirror. Furthermore, as Vasari implies, when we first look at Par

migianino's painting, we are deceived by it.6 If we—the viewers of the panel—have not been forewarned, we believe for an in stant that we are looking at a mirror. As Vasari says, Parmigianino has imitated the mirror so precisely that we see no differ ence between fact and fiction. In the next

moment, however, the illusion is gone, and we realize that we have been duped. The viewer recognizes that he has been looking at a painting of a mirror in which is re flected not himself, but a beautiful youth identifiable as the artist.

Although Vasan addresses several impor tant features of the style and intention of

Parmigianino's Self-Portrait, other aspects of the painting also deserve attention. For

example, Vasari seems to suggest that the artist's interest in the convex mirror was

entirely spontaneous. In this regard, we should recall that Parmigianino was not the first artist to depict a mirror. From the early fourteenth century onward, mirrors were often found in Italian art (and even more often in Netherlandish art). For instance, Giotto painted it as an attribute of Prudence in the Arena Chapel, Padua; Pietro Loren zetti's Vainglory holds one in the Allegory of Bad Government in the Palazzo Pub

blico, Siena; and Giovanni Bellini, Gior

gione, and Titian included a mirror in at least one of their paintings. Given the fact that mirrors are common in Renaissance

art, Parmigianino's interest in the convex barber's glass was surely not due simply to

This fascination with reflection is vividly exemplified in numerous Renaissance paint ings. For example, in Piero della Fran cesca's Baptism of Christ (National Gal

lery, London), the river Jordan mirrors the

sky and rolling hills above it. Other exam

ples of artistic interest in reflection are to be found in Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks, where, for instance, he likened painting to the reflection in a mirror. For him, a paint ing is like a mirror, and the artist should

compare the reflected image with the one he has depicted.7 According to Leonardo, both

paintings and mirrors reflect nature, and the more the painted image resembles the re flected image, the better—an idea that Par

migianino seems to have taken quite liter

ally. The Self-Portrait conveys other meanings

as well. Because a mirror reflects what is in front of it, Parmigianino's face, hand, and

upper torso as depicted in the panel imply his presence.8 Indeed, the artist is the

imaginal viewer of the painting, everlast

ingly present as he gazes at his image in the mirror. The fiction of the panel, then, is that the artist has placed his left hand close to the mirror and looks into it as if delighted by the reflection of his appearance.

We should notice here the long-standing recognition that self-portraits are painted with the help of mirrors. Pliny the Elder

{Natural History 35.147-148), citing Mar cus Varro, says that Iaia of Kyzikos, who

specialized in portraits of women, used a mirror when painting her own image, and

Filippo Villani says that Giotto used a mir ror when painting a portrait of himself.9 In

Parmigianino's painting, however, instead



28

of using a mirror simply as a tool to create a self-portrait, the artist imitates his reflec tion as he looks into it. His painting is not

simply a likeness of himself, but a likeness of himself as reflected in a mirror.

ical presence in front of it, which invites us to imagine that the artist looks into it as if it were an actual mirror. In other words, like

Narcissus, Parmigianino, or his implied presence, mistakes the depiction of an ob

ject for the object itself; he is duped by the

panel's illusionism and, therefore, by his own skill as an artist.

Parmigianino s panel is the depiction of a

reflection, and he is forever situated in front of his own image. Accepting the painting's invitation to imagine the artist in front of this illusionistic mirror and gazing into it, we realize that Parmigianino is like Narcis

sus, who, as Ovid tells us (Metamorphoses 3.341-510), was enamored of his own re flection in a pool of water.10 Parmigianino, like his mythological counterpart, is oblivi ous to his surroundings, absorbed by his

image, fixed by his reflection, frozen for ever in front of it.

That Parrrugianino s panel suggests a link between himself and Narcissus is not

surprising, for Alberti and Filarete had identified the mythological figure as a

painter." Indeed, in Book II of his treatise on painting, Alberti says that Narcissus was the first painter and compares his at

tempt to embrace his reflection on the sur face of the water to the artist's desire to embrace nature. Because Parmigianino ap pears to have paused momentarily in the act of drawing or painting, his panel might be seen as a visual counterpart to Alberti's notion of the artist as one who simultane

ously embraces both himself and nature. Art in this view is not only the imitation of

nature, it is also a reflection of the artist.12

There is a further parallel between Ovid s

Narcissus and Parmigianino's painting. Narcissus is fooled by his image in the pool of water. He mistakes his reflection for an actual person and initially believes that the

watery image is someone other than him

self. As we have suggested, the fiction of

Parmigianino's painting is that of his phys

Ovid says that Narcissus was beautiful and that he fell in love with the beauty of his own image. Parmigianino, too, as we witness in his painting, was an attractive

young man. And Vasari explains that he "had an air of great beauty, with a face and

aspect full of grace, in the likeness rather of an angel than of a man, his image on that ball [that is, the Self-Portrait] had the ap pearance of a thing divine."13 According to

Vasari, Parmigianino successfully repre sented his own divine beauty, a beauty of which the artist would certainly have been aware. As he gazes at his reflection in the illusionistic mirror, Parmigianino, like Nar

cissus, contemplates the beauty of his own

image. In Vasan s view, Parmigianino s Self

Portrait is a tour de force of illusionistic

representation; his painted mirror seems to be an actual mirror. This emphasis on ar tistic skill is echoed by the painting itself, in which the hand of the artist, the instrument of his skill, occupies a prominent place.14 The painting, however, as suggested here, is more than an example of the artist's mas

tery. In the Self-Portrait, Parmigianino, like the mythical figure of Narcissus, is fasci nated by his reflection and aware of his own

beauty, which Vasari describes as angelic and divine. Moreover, just as Narcissus tried to touch his image in the pool of wa

ter, Parmigianino makes a similar gesture toward his reflection, for through the very act of painting he embraces his own image.



29

We may also see the panel from yet an other perspective—that of the rich symbol ism of the mirror in Renaissance art.15 Par

migianino's painting reminds us that per sonifications of Vanity and Pride (Su perbia) usually hold a mirror, which can also symbolize both truth and self-knowl

edge as it relates to Prudence. Given these conventional meanings of the mirror as

symbol, we might assume that Parmigian ino's painting playfully signals both an awareness of his own self-enchantment and a knowledge of his own vanity, which is like that of Narcissus.16 The truth of the mirror is not only its convincing imitation of nature; the mirror's truth is also the art ist's self-knowledge, the recognition of his

vanity as well as his pride. On the other

hand, Parmigianino seems to ignore the conventional association of the mirror and

prudence; indeed, subverting convention, the figure in the painting seems to exult in his reflection and his vanity. Rather than

1.G. Vasan, Le vite de piü eccellenti pittori scultori e architettori, ed. R. Bettarini and P. Baroc

chi, 6 vols. (Florence: 1987), IV, p. 532. All trans

lations are from id., Lives of the Painters, Sculptors and Architects, trans. G. du C. de Vere, 2 vols.

(New York and Toronto: 1996), n, pp. 932-944:

2. L. Schneider Adams, Art and Psychoanalysis

(New York: 1993), pp. 265-266. Adams, however, does not claim that Vasari's anecdotes are literally true. Rather, his anecdotes, she says (p. 64), are

"consistent with an artist's work as well as with his

psychology." See also id., "Mirrors in Art," Psy

choanalytic Inquiry 5 (1985):319—320; R. Brilliant, Portraiture (Cambridge, Mass.: 1991), p. 158, who

speaks of the artist's "narcissistic vanity"; and R.

Wittkower and M. Wittkower, Born under Saturn:

The Character and Conduct of Artists (New York:

1963), pp. 85-87. 3. Vasari-Bettarini, IV, pp. 534-535.

NOTES

condemn vanity in his painting, Parmigian ino's figure vainly and pridefully indulges his own beauty, grace, and loveliness.

If Parmigianino was narcissistic, he was so not only in the psychological sense of

neurosis, but in the moral sense of impru dently loving himself too much, and Vasari's account of the artist's abandon ment of his calling for alchemy might have been intended to suggest as much. In other

words, Vasari might have thought Parmi

gianino to be like the Narcissus of Andrea Alciati's Emblemata (1549, Lyons), in which there appears an epigram addressed to the mythological figure. The epigram reads: "Narcissus because you are happy with yourself, you have been changed into a flower that carries your name. It is a flaw and a lack of judgment to love oneself. Such a love has driven many men to blind

ness, because, abandoning the ancient

ways, they only desire to follow their fan tasies."17

4. For an illustration of this painting, see C.

Gould, Parmigianino (New York: 1994), p. 43, fig. 27.

5.1 am echoing P. Barolsky, Giotto's Father and

the Family of Vasari's Lives (University Park, Pa.:

1992), pp. 83-84, who also suggests that Vasari's

story about Parmigianino embracing alchemy is a

fiction. 6. See also S. J. Freedberg, Parmigianino: His

Works in Painting (rpt.; Westport, Corm.: 1950), p. 105, who notices the trompe l'oeil effect of Parmig ianino's painting.

7. Leonardo da Vinci, The Literary Works of Leonardo da Vinci, ed. J. P. Richter, 2 vols. (Lon don: 1970), I, p. 320.

8. Cf. Brilliant, p. 158, who writes that Parmig ianino's painting "sets up an opposition between his

actual but perishable body and its transient reflec

tion, a reflection that not only survives him but pre



30

serves the true nature of his being as an artist."

9. F. Villani, Liber de civitatis Florentiae famosis civibus (Florence: 1847), p. 36.

10. We should notice that in Inferno 30.128

Dante calls water "the mirror of Narcissus."

11. L. B. Alberti, On Painting, trans. C. Grayson

(Harmondsworth: 1991), p. 61, and A. Averlino, called II Filarete, Trattato di Architeltura, ed. A.

M. Finoli and L. Grassi, 2 vols. (Milan: 1972), I, p. 260. In 1548, two decades after Parmigianino

painted his Self-Portrait, the Venetian artist and art

theorist P. Pino, Dialogo di Pittura, ed. R. Palluc

chini and A. Pallucchini (Venice: 1946), pp. 138— 139, compares the painter, who melts into his art, to

Narcissus gazing at his reflection in a pool of water.

See also N. Land, "Narcissus Pictor," SOURCE 16, no. 2 (Winter 1997): 10-15.

12. For the belief that art reflects its creator, see

A. Chastel, Art et humanisme á Florence au temps de Laurent le Magnifique (Paris: 1961), pp. 102—

104, and M. Kemp, "'Ogni dipintori dinpinge se':

A Neoplatonic Echo in Leonardo's Art Theory?" in

Cultural Aspects of the Renaissance: Essays in

Honour of Paul Oskar Kristeller, ed. C. Clough

(Manchester: 1976), pp. 311-312. 13. Vasari-Bettarini, IV, p. 535.

14. L. Schneider Adams, A History of Western

Art, 2d ed. (London: 1997), p. 306: "The role of the

artist's hand in the artifice [of the Self-Portrait] is thus an integral part of the picture's iconography."

15. For the symbolism of the mirror and for fur

ther bibliography, see G. de Tervarent, Attributs et

symboles dans I'art profane, 1450-1600, 2 vols.

(Geneva: 1958-1959),n,cols. 271-275;H. Schwarz, "The Mirror of the Artist and the Mirror of the De

vout: Observations on Some Paintings, Drawings and Prints of the Fifteenth Century," in Studies in

the History of Art Dedicated to William E. Suida on

His Eightieth Birthday (London: 1959), pp. 90-105; id., "The Mirror in Art," Art Quarterly 15 (Spring,

1952):96—118; and R. van Marie, Iconographie de

I 'Art Profane au Moyen-Age et á la Renaissance, 2

vols. (The Hague: 1932), II, pp. 43 and 54-60. See

also Adams, "Mirrors in Art," 283-324. As far as I

know, no one has considered the possible symbol ism of Parmigianino's illusionistic mirror.

16. For a discussion of the mirror as a symbol of

vanity, see de Tervarent, II, col. 273. For Michelan

gelo's witty allegory on the themes of Prudence and

Vanity, see P. Barolsky, The Faun in the Garden:

Michelangelo and the Poetic Origins of Italian

Renaissance Art (University Park, Pa.: 1994), pp. 9-12.

17. P. M. Daly, ed., Andreas Alciatus, 2: Em

blems in Translation (Toronto: 1985), emblem 69.



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