Virgin and Child with Saint John the Baptist and Mary Magdalene

In one of the most unorthodox Holy Families of the Italian Renaissance, Parmigianino separates the Virgin from her Child: Mary reaches across to clutch her son by the wrist while the infant turns away to converse with and embrace his cousin Saint John the Baptist, whose hands are joined in prayer, and a young woman with flowing hair supports the Child from behind. She is Mary Magdalene — the pearls and toilette stiletto in the foreground still life and the tiny Assumption of the Magdalene in the upper left settle her identity, though older literature read her as Saint Catherine of Alexandria. Painted about 1535 to 1540, probably for private devotion or a small chapel, the panel is laid down from several sheets of paper smoothed onto wood and survives extremely well, showing the polished, enamel-like surface and meticulous detail of Parmigianino’s mature style — likely his last work of this kind. The painting is held in the J. Paul Getty Museum.