Dr. Mary Vaccaro sheds new light on architecture in the “Madonna of the long neck”

The September 2024 issue of The Burlington Magazine — the world's leading art periodical — includes a new contribution by UTA Distinguished Professor of Art History Mary Vaccaro, titled "Parmigianino, Damiano Pieti and the beauty of architecture in the 'Madonna of the long neck,'" and features the famous altarpiece by Parmigianino on its cover. Professor Vaccaro published a trilogy of essays about her discoveries in the Parma baptismal records in the same journal last year. Here, she delves further into Parmigianino's ties to and working relationship with a local architect for whose son he had served as godfather: Damiano Pieti was translating Leon Battista Alberti's important 15th-century architectural treatise at the same time that Parmigianino was developing his ideas for a beautiful temple in the picture's background. In a related press announcement (Editor's Digest), Christopher Baker, the Editor of The Burlington Magazine, states: "And why did Parmigianino place a column so prominently in the background of his splendid ‘Madonna of the long neck’ (Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence)? Mary Vaccaro provides a compelling explanation."

“Not subject to human rules, every part of (Parmigianino’s) Madonna – the noble feet, the rounded belly, the elongated neck, the bejeweled coiffure – was calculated to echo an analogous feature in the (unfinished) building in the background and surpass it in grace and beauty,” writes Dr. Vaccaro in her essay.