ABSTRACT
Parmigianino was an artist with a considerable amount of self-esteem and audacity, as the painting makes clear. It is much less psychological than it is programmatic, and its program was to promote the elevated status of the arts and the artist in Cinquecento Rome. There are several reasons why this particular work of art deserves a central position in a publication discussing the role of Neoplatonic ideas for the arts of Renaissance. The Bust of the Platonic Youth of embodies central ideas of the Neoplatonists’ euphoria for Platonic love. Parmigianino was an artist with a considerable amount of self-esteem and audacity, as the painting makes clear. It also visualizes the fruitful ambiguities and the intellectual potential of a ‘lesser’ genre of portraiture. The artist takes his own image to demonstrate his bravura, wit, and intellectual confidence. Homoerotic and straightforward sexual implications are indeed part of the passages in Plato’s Phaedrus, where metaphor of the charioteer is discussed in greater detail.
