Parmigianino
The title work of art is a painting by an Italian Renaissance artist named Francesco Mazzola. Mazzola is better known to history as Il Parmigianino.
Giorgio Vasari
Vasari is the author of a 1550 text titled Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects. Ashbery references this work in his poem to describe the artistic techniques employed by Parmigianino to create the illusion of his face reflected in a convex mirror.
Sydney Freedberg
Freedberg is another real life character mentioned in the poem. The poet engages Freedberg’s standing as leading scholar on Renaissance art to introduce irony with the critic’s analysis that though the artist engages realism in his artwork for a purpose other than intensifying truth.
Pierre
Pierre is mentioned just once. The speaker recalls the summer of 1959 when he first saw the painting in Vienna accompanied by Pierre. The exact relationship between the poet and Pierre remains undisclosed in the text.
