La visione di san Girolamo

Parmigianino was about 23 and working on this altarpiece in Rome in 1527, the year the city was sacked by the mutinous troops of Charles V. Vasari tells the story that when soldiers broke into his studio, they were so struck by what he was painting that they let him carry on, asking only for drawings in return. Whether or not it happened quite like that, the picture itself is strange and crowded. A tall Madonna sits on billowing cloud with the Christ child stepping forward, while below them John the Baptist twists round and points up at the vision. Saint Jerome, whose vision this is meant to be, lies asleep in the undergrowth behind, apparently missing the whole thing. The stretched, elegant figures are the Mannerist style Parmigianino helped shape, and he carried this canvas out of Rome with him when he fled.