Saints Peter and John healing the Sick
16th century
Medium
Etching with pink tone block
Dimensions
sheet: 10 11/16 x 16 3/16 in. (27.1 x 41.1 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Purchase, Rogers Fund, by exchange, 1932
Accession Number
32.58.16
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the bustling world of 16th-century Italian art, Parmigianino— Girolamo Francesco Mariaola—captured a miraculous biblical moment in *Saints Peter and John the Sick*. This etching the apostles performing healings, drawing from Acts in the New Testament, surrounded by the ill, including vulnerable women and children. As a leading Mannerist artist, Parmigianino infused the scene with his signature elegance: elongated figures and graceful poses that evoke both divine grace and human suffering, reflecting the era's spiritual fervor amid the Reformation. What makes this print extraordinary is its...
About the Artist
Parmigianino (Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola) · 1503–1540
Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola, known as Parmigianino, was born on January 11, 1503, in Parma, into a family of artists. The eighth child of painter Filippo Mazzola and Donatella Abbati, he lost his father to the plague at age two and was raised by his uncles, Michele and Pier Ilario Mazzola, modestly talented painters who taught him the techniques of the craft. By his late teens, Parmigianino d...