Francesco represented the Virgin appearing in the air; she is reading, and has the Divine Child in her lap. On the earth beneath is a figure of San Giovanni kneeling on one knee in a singularly beautiful attitude, the back bent; he is pointing to the Infant Christ: there is a St. Jerome in his state of penance[1] also in this picture, he is lying on the ground asleep, the figure foreshortened.[2]
But this work the master was not suffered to bring to perfection, the sack and ruin of Rome in 1527 interrupting his labours, and not only did this event cause the arts to be for a time banished from that city, but it also cost the life of many artists. Francesco was indeed himself within a hair’s breadth of being among the number, which happened on this wise. In the commencement of the plunder, and when the soldiers began to burst into the houses, our artist was so intent on his work, that when his own dwelling was filled with certain of these men who were Germans, he remained undisturbed by their clamours, and did not move from his place; arriving in the room therefore, and finding him thus employed, they stood confounded at the beauty of the paintings they beheld, and, like good and sensible men, as they must have been, they permitted him to continue his occupation. Thus, while the most impious cruelty of the barbarous hordes by whom the unhappy town was invested, was scourging that miserable place, and destroying all, sacred and secular works alike, having respect neither to God nor man, Francesco was provided for by those Germans, who honoured him greatly and defended him from every kind of injury. One loss only did our artist suffer at that time from these events, namely, that one of the soldiers in question, being a great lover of painting and the arts, compelled him to execute a large number of drawings in water colour and with the pen, which were demanded as the payment of his ransom.
But when the soldiery was afterwards changed, Francesco
- ↑ This expression alludes to the fact that St. Jerome is sometimes represented in the robes of his rank as a Cardinal, and sometimes in his condition of asceticism, or when doing penance, as he is here depicted.
- ↑ The picture here alluded to is the Vision of St. Jerome, now, as our readers are aware, in the National Gallery; it was engraved by Giulio Bonasone, the contemporary of Parmigiano. A highly finished sketch of this work, by some thought to be a diminished copy, made by the master himself, is in the Grosvenor Gallery.
