  About the Artwork
  
  
  As required of Jewish males, Jesus was brought to the temple on the eighth day after birth to be circumcised. In addition to the child receiving his Hebrew name, the ceremony marked the covenant between the Jews and God. Parmigianino celebrates this moment by contrasting the pale light of the moon (visible in the background) with the brilliance emanating from the child's halo. This latter light represents both spiritual grace and a physical phenomenon; it is used to define the modeling of the attenuated and exaggerated figures and to effect the color tonations. The descriptive liberties taken by the artist—the exaggeration of proportions and the disregard for linear perspective—are characteristic of his early mannerist style.
  
  
  Title
  The Circumcision
  
  
  Artwork Date
  ca. 1523
  
  Artist
  Parmigianino
  
  
  
  Life Dates
  1503-1540
  
  
  
  
  Nationality
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events.
  Some definitions include:
  Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation.
  
  
  
  Italian
  
  
  
  Culture
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group.
  
  
  
  
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  Medium
  Oil on wood panel
  
  
  Dimensions
  Unframed: 16 1/2 × 12 3/8 inches (41.9 × 31.4 cm)
  Framed: 22 7/8 × 19 1/4 × 2 inches (58.1 × 48.9 × 5.1 cm)
  
  
  Classification
  Paintings
  
  
  Department
  European Painting
  
  
  Credit
  Gift of Axel Beskow
  
  
  
  Accession Number
  
  
  
  This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection.
  Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings.
  For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups.
  
  
  
  30.295
  
  
  Copyright
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