Madonna of the Rose (Parmigianino)

The work is generally thought to have been completed by March 1530, when Parmigianino went to Venice with senator Ludovico Carbonesi to buy pigments for a later work, the unfinished frescoes for the San Maurizio chapel at San Petronio back in Bologna, personally commissioned by Charles V himself.

and already had a notoriously high price by then - Doni wrote that "[not even] a large cup of scudi would pay for it".

The Zani family refused several buyers such as Vincenzo I Gonzaga (2 February 1585) and cardinal Farnese, who offered 40 scudi for it.

Fifty copies from it had already been made by Vasari's time, all commissioned by its owners whilst jealously guarding the original - one of them is now in the Royal Collection.

[4] It was only in 1752 that count Paolo Zani sold the original work to Augustus III of Saxony for 1,350 zecchini, bringing it to its present home.