Madonna and Child with Saints

In 1527 imperial troops sacked Rome, and Parmigianino, then in his early twenties, fled the city. He settled for a few years in Bologna, and it was there, around 1530, that he painted this crowded devotional picture. Saint Zechariah, the aged father of John the Baptist, leans in massively across the foreground, which is why the work has always been called the Madonna of San Zaccaria, while behind him the Virgin holds the Child and the young Baptist, and Mary Magdalene turns her jar of ointment to the light. It was made for a Bolognese buyer, Count Gozzadini. The composition travelled far beyond Florence after the engraver Giulio Bonasone printed it in 1543, and for centuries it was among the most copied paintings in the gallery.