Correggio (1494–1534)

Italian artist, born Antonio Allegri in the town of Correggio in Lombardy. He was the son of a merchant and apprenticed as a painter in the city of Modena with Francesco Ferrara. He returned to Correggio in 1506 and began working on religious paintings for wealthy patrons and on commission from the city fathers of Mantua. He was influenced by Leonardo da Vinci and Andrea Mantegna in his early works, including Madonna of St. Francis and Adoration of the Child with St. Elizabeth and John. In about 1518 he went to Rome, where he studied the works of Michelangelo and Raphael, then returned to Parma, where he was commissioned to create frescoes for the convent of San Paolo. These paintings were done on the walls and ceiling of the Camera di San Paolo, the drawing room of Giovanna da Piacenza, the abbess of the convent. Depicted is the mythical figure of Diana, goddess of the hunt, and a scene of cherubs set in an arbor overgrown with fruits and vines. Correggio also painted the apse, nave, and interior dome of the church of San Giovanni Evangelista. The dome painting—known as The Vision of St. John the Evangelist on Patmos —shows Christ and other figures in perspective, looking directly down on the view and worshippers. In the cathedral of Parma the painter created an even more elaborate cupola ceiling, depicting the assumption of the Virgin Mary among a crowded scene of saints and angels. In this work Correggio drew on his study of Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling, and his own great skill at perspective, to draw the viewer directly into the complex action of the painting.

Correggio executed several majestic, elaborate altarpieces, including the Madonna of St. Sebastian, Adoration of the Shepherds, and the Madonna of St. George. One of his most famous small paintings, Christ on the Mount of Olives, shows the figure of Christ kneeling and gesturing in a setting of darkness illuminated by a holy light from the heavens. Other renowned paintings of Correggio are the Madonna of the Baske and Madonna Adoring the Christ Child. Federigo Gonzaga, the duke of Mantua, commissioned from Correggio a series of six paintings of mythological scenes, inspired by the work of the ancient Roman poet Ovid. These paintings broke new ground in their eroticism and depiction of the human form, such as in Leda and the Swan, Ganymede Abducted by the Eagle, and The Education of Cupid, which shows a nude Venus looking directly at the viewer. Correggio remained in the town of Parma for most of his life, far from the mainstreams of Renaissance art and thought in Rome and Florence. But his work was admired by painters in the years to come, who adopted his depiction of figures in motion, foreshortening, and lush scenery to create new traditions in the Baroque and Rococo periods.

See Also: Michelangelo Buonarroti; painting; Raphael