Artwork
Man Holding a Book
Man Holding a Book is an unspecified painting by the High Renaissance artist Parmigianino. It dates from 1529 and is held in the collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum. Created around 1529, this oil painting on poplar panel depicts a solitary figure seated against a dark backdrop.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
He rests one elbow on a table, pressing his index finger to his temple in a gesture of concentration, while his other hand supports an open book.
The painting portrays a young, bearded man shown half-length against a brown background, dressed entirely in black including his hat. He rests one elbow on a table, pressing his index finger to his temple in a gesture of concentration, while his other hand supports an open book. The sitter's gaze is thoughtful and distant, as though he has paused mid-reading to follow the thread of an idea, an impression reinforced by the Italian title "Uomo che sospende la lettura" ("Man who suspends his reading").
The book functions as the central iconographic attribute, signaling erudition, intellectual reflection, and the contemplative life rather than identifying a specific individual. Combined with the finger-to-temple motif, the open volume frames the sitter as a personification of studious meditation, a humanist ideal consistent with Parmigianino's High Renaissance milieu. The unblended, rapid brushwork visible across the forehead, doublet, and book itself is characteristic of his Bolognese period and lends the figure an immediacy that heightens the impression of an interrupted moment of thought.
Technique & Style
The work is executed in oil on a poplar wood panel, a common support for small-scale portraits of the period. Parmigianino’s handling is characterized by rapid, loose brushstrokes that leave forms slightly unfused, a technique especially noticeable on the sitter’s forehead, doublet, and the open book he holds. This brushwork contributes to a sense of immediacy and contributes to the painting’s thoughtful, introspective mood. Stylistically, the unfused, rapid handling is identified as typical of the artist’s Bolognese period, aligning the piece with his broader output from around 1529.
History & Provenance
Man Holding a Book is a portrait painting executed around 1529 by Parmigianino. The work was recorded in the collection of Rudolf II in Prague by 1685, having been acquired in 1651 from the sale of Charles I of England’s collection. It entered the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna in 1721, initially attributed to Correggio, and was reattributed to Parmigianino in 1857 following the scholarship of Ktaft; later attributions by Frölich-Bum (1921), Gamba (1940), Longhi (1958), Di Giampaolo (1991), Gould (1994), and Chiusa (2001) support this designation, though some scholars have proposed copies or alternative attributions.
Context
Scholarly consensus identifies the work as a product of Parmigianino's Bolognese period, characterized by a rapid execution style where distinct brushstrokes remain visible on the figure's forehead, doublet, and the open book. Although early inventories from the collections of Rudolf II in Prague (1685) and later Vienna misattributed the panel to Correggio, reflecting the latter's influence on the artist's early career, Ktaft correctly restored the attribution to Parmigianino in 1857.
Subsequent art historians, including Frölich-Bum, Longhi, and Gould, have largely affirmed this classification. However, the painting's status has faced intermittent challenge; Copertini and Barocchi argued it was merely a copy of an autograph original, while Quintavalle proposed alternative authorship by Michelangelo Anselmi or Girolamo da Carpi.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola (11 January 1503 – 24 August 1540), also known as Francesco Mazzola or, more commonly, as Parmigianino (UK: US: Italian:; "the little one from Parma"), was an Italian Mannerist painter…
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