Focus on The Circumcision (Parmigianino) and analyze the History.
Giorgio Vasari, the late Renaissance biographer of artists, described a depiction of the Circumcision by Parmigianino. However, his description does not match the Detroit painting: he described a series of characters holding torches and walking which do not appear in this work.The painting is known with certainty only starting from the 1830s, when it was part of the Russian imperial collection, and was copied in an 1851 etching by J. W. Muxel. In 1917 it was acquired at Stockholm by A.B. Nordiska Kompaniet, which a few years later sold it to the American Axel Beskow. In 1936 he donated the work to the Detroit museum.
The painting was not unanimously attributed to Parmigianino until 1991.The dating from around 1523 is based on comparison with early other works by the artist and by a preparatory drawing at the Cabinet des Dessins (inv. 6390) of the Louvre museum.
Stockholm Giorgio Vasari Parmigianino Nordiska Kompaniet Russian imperial collection Louvre Cabinet des Dessins