Kneeling Woman Lifting Her Hand to Her Head after 1531

Parmigianino rendered this drawing of a kneeling woman in the early 16th century using red chalk. The work embodies the elegance and poise valued in the Italian Renaissance courts, but it also represents a social world in which the Church played a central role in the lives of both men and women. The woman’s demure, prayerful pose is immediately recognizable as religious in nature, and the drawing may well have been a preparatory study for a larger religious painting. As a historian, I can reflect on the place of drawings like this within the workshops of Renaissance artists. Surviving examples give us insight into the division of labor between the master and his assistants, and how they negotiated the complex demands of their patrons. We can learn much more about the social function of art by researching who commissioned such works, and where they were originally displayed.