On Beautiful Women, Parmigianino,Petrarchismo, and the Vernacular Style

Abstract

Among Pietro Testa's notes on painting, which were unsystematically collected after his death in 1650, is one folio dedicated to “Particolari perfetioni che fanno la donna bellissima” (Figs. 1 and 2).1 It is devoted, as the heading indicates, to the artist's definitions of those features that render a woman most beautiful. The notes are unusually clear and precise, and in the margin next to the written description of each particular feature Testa drew a small illustrative sketch. The recto of the sheet (Fig. 1) is concerned with qualities of the head and shoulders. Testa required that the hair be long, fine, blonde, and knotted simply. For the brow he made a diagram of two squares, representing its correct wide proportions. In the left square he shows how the brow should curve in an arc towards the top. The eyebrows are to be dark, and they too should curve in perfect arches that taper gently towards the ends. Beautiful eyes are large and prominent, oval in shape, and blue or dark chestnut in color. The e...