| |  | Correggio |  |
| Antonio Allegri, 'Correggio' (circa 1489-1534), was an Italian painter, named after the small town in Emilia where he was born. Little is known of his life, but his paintings suggest under whom he may have formed his style. Echoes of Mantegna's manner in many of his early paintings indicate that he may have studied that master's work in Mantua, and he was influenced in these works also by Lorenzo Costa and Leonardo. Later he initiated a style of sentimental elegance and conscious allure with soft sfumato and gestures of captivating charm. | |
His first large-scale commission was for the decoration of the abbess's room in the convent of S. Paolo, in Parma. The S. Paolo ceiling was followed by two dome paintings in which Correggio developed the illusionist conception of depicting a scene as though it were actually taking place in the sky above ('sotto in su'). The first of these domes was commissioned for the church of S. Giovanni Evangelista in 1520. The twelve Apostles sit on clouds round the base, while Christ is shown in sharp foreshortening ascending to heaven. In the commission six years later for an Assumption of the Virgin in the dome of Parma Cathedral he used the same principle, but on a much larger scale and with still more daring foreshortening. These works reveal Correggio as one of the boldest and most inventive artists of the High Renaissance and they were highly influential on the development of Baroque dome painting. Other aspects of Correggio's work were even more forward-looking. His extraordinarily sensuous mythologies, foreshadow the paintings of Rococo artists such as Boucher, and it was at this time that Correggio's reputation was at its height. |
|
| |
|  | | "Portrait of a Gentlewoman" (1517-19) Oil on canvas, 87.5 x 103 cm - 34.4 x 40.6 in. Hermitage, St Petersburg, Russia. | | | |
|  | | "The Rest on the Flight to Egypt with Saint Francis" (1517) Oil on canvas, 106.5 x 123.5 cm - 41.9 x 48.6 in. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, Italy. | | | |
|  | | "Assumption of the Virgin, detail of the Apostles" (1526-30) Fresco. Duomo, Florence, Italy. | | | |
|  | | "Madonna with St. Jerome (The Day)" (1522) Oil on canvas, 141 x 205.7 cm - 55.5 x 81 in. Galleria Nazionale, Parma, Italy. | | | |
|  | | "Mystical marriage of St. Catherine of Alexandria with Christ" (1526-27) Oil on wood, 105 × 102 cm - 41.3 x 40.2 in. Musée du Louvre, Paris, France. | | | |
|  | | "Noli Me Tangere" (circa 1525) Oil on canvas, 130 x 103 cm - 51 1/8 x 40 1/2 in. Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain. | | | |
|  | | "Portrait of a Young Man" (circa 1525) Oil on wood, 59 x 44 cm - 23 1/4 x 17 1/4 in. Musée du Louvre, Paris, France. | | | |
|  | | "Nativity (Holy Night)" (1528-30) Oil on canvas, 188 x 256.5 cm - 74 x 101 in. Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden, Germany. |
| Text source: 'Webmuseum' (www.ibiblio.org/wm). | |
|
|
