Antonio Allegri da Correggio(August 1489 – 5 March 1534), usually known as justCorreggio(/kəˈrɛdʒioʊ/,alsoUK:/kɒˈ-/,US:/-dʒoʊ/,[1][2][3]Italian:[korˈreddʒo]) was anItalian Renaissance painterwho was the foremost painter of theParmaschool of theHigh Renaissance,who was responsible for some of the most vigorous and sensuous works of the sixteenth century. In his use of dynamic composition, illusionistic perspective and dramatic foreshortening, Correggio prefigured theBaroqueart of the seventeenth century and theRococoart of the eighteenth century. He is considered a master ofchiaroscuro.
Antonio Allegri was born inCorreggio,a small town nearReggio Emilia.His date of birth is uncertain (around 1489). His father was a merchant.[4]Otherwise little is known about Correggio's early life or training. It is, however, often assumed that he had his first artistic education from his father's brother, the painterLorenzo Allegri.[5]
In 1503–1505, he was apprenticed toFrancesco Bianchi FerrarainModena,where he probably became familiar with the classicism of artists likeLorenzo CostaandFrancesco Francia,evidence of which can be found in his first works. After a trip toMantuain 1506, he returned to Correggio, where he stayed until 1510. To this period is assigned theAdoration of the Child with St. Elizabeth and John,which shows clear influences from Costa andMantegna.In 1514, he probably finished threetondosfor the entrance of thechurch of Sant'Andrea in Mantua,and then returned to Correggio, where, as an independent and increasingly renowned artist, he signed a contract for the Madonna altarpiece in the local monastery of St. Francis (now in theDresden Gemäldegalerie).
One of his sons,Pomponio Allegri,became an undistinguished painter. Both father and son occasionally referred to themselves using the Latinized form of the family name, Laeti.[6]
By 1516, Correggio was in Parma, where he spent most of the remainder of his career. Here, he befriendedMichelangelo Anselmi,a prominentManneristpainter. In 1519 he married Girolama Francesca di Braghetis, also of Correggio, who died in 1529.[7]From this period are theMadonna and Child with the Young Saint John,Christ Leaving His Motherand the lostMadonna of Albinea.
Correggio's first major commission (February–September 1519) was the ceiling decoration of a private chamber of the mother-superior (abbess Giovanna Piacenza) of the convent of St. Paul in Parma, now known asCamera di San Paolo.Here he painted an arbor pierced by oculi opening to glimpses of playful cherubs. Below the oculi arelunetteswith images of statues in feigned monochromic marble. The fireplace is frescoed with an image ofDiana.The iconography of the scheme is complex, combining images of classical marbles with whimsical colorfulbambini.
He then painted the illusionisticVision of St. John on Patmos(1520–21) for the dome of the church ofSan Giovanni Evangelista.Three years later he decorated the dome of theCathedral of Parmawith a startlingAssumption of the Virgin,crowded with layers of receding figures inMelozzo's perspective (sotto in su,from down to up).[7]These two works represented a highly novel illusionisticsotto in sutreatment of dome decoration that would exert a profound influence upon future fresco artists, fromCarlo Cignaniin his frescoAssumption of the Virgin,in the cathedral church ofForlì,toGaudenzio Ferrariin his frescoes for the cupola ofSanta Maria dei MiracoliinSaronno,toPordenonein his now-lost fresco fromTreviso,and to the baroque elaborations ofLanfrancoandBaciccioin Roman churches. The massing of spectators in a vortex, creating both narrative and decoration, the illusionistic obliteration of the architectural roof-plane, and the thrusting perspective toward divine infinity, were devices without precedent, and which depended on the extrapolation of the mechanics of perspective. The recession and movement implied by the figures presage the dynamism that would characterizeBaroquepainting.
Other masterpieces includeThe LamentationandThe Martyrdom of Four Saints,both at the Galleria Nazionale of Parma. TheLamentationis haunted by a lambency rarely seen in Italian painting prior to this time.[8]TheMartyrdomis also remarkable for resembling later Baroque compositions such asBernini'sTruthandErcole Ferrata'sDeath of Saint Agnes,showing a gleeful saint entering martyrdom.[8]
Jupiter and Io(c. 1531) typifies the unabashed eroticism, radiance, and cool, pearly colors associated with Correggio's best work.
Aside from his religious output, Correggio conceived a now-famous set of paintings depicting theLoves of Jupiteras described inOvid'sMetamorphoses.The voluptuous series was commissioned byFederico II Gonzagaof Mantua, probably to decorate his private Ovid Room in thePalazzo Te.However, they were given to the visiting Holy Roman EmperorCharles Vand thus left Italy within years of their completion.
Leda and the Swan– acquired byFrederick the Greatin 1753; now in Staatliche Museen ofBerlin– is a tumult of incidents: in the centre Leda straddles a swan, and on the right, a shy but satisfied maiden.Danaë,now in Rome'sBorghese Gallery,depicts the maiden as she is impregnated by a curtain of gilded divine rain. Her lower torso semi-obscured by sheets, Danae appears more demure and gleeful thanTitian's 1545 version of the same topic, where the rain is more accurately numismatic. The picture once calledAntiope and the Satyris now correctly identified asVenus and Cupid with a Satyr.
Ganymede Abducted by the Eagledepicts the young man aloft in literal amorous flight. Some have interpreted the conjunction of man and eagle as a metaphor for the evangelist John; however, given the erotic context of this and other paintings, this seems unlikely. This painting and its partner, the masterpiece ofJupiter and Io,are inKunsthistorisches MuseumofVienna.Ganymede Abducted by the Eagle,one of the four mythological paintings commissioned by Federico II Gonzaga, is a proto-Baroquework due to its depiction of movement, drama, and diagonal compositional arrangement.
Returning to his home town in later years, Correggio died there suddenly on 5 March 1534. The following day he was buried in San Francesco in Correggio near his youthful masterpiece, the 'Madonna di San Francesco', housed today in Dresden. The precise location of his tomb is now unknown.
Correggio was remembered by his contemporaries as a shadowy, melancholic, and introverted character. An Enigma tic and eclectic artist, he appears to have emerged from no major apprenticeship. In addition to the influence of Costa, there are echoes ofMantegna's style in his work, and a response toLeonardo da Vinci,as well. Correggio had little immediate influence in terms of apprenticed successors, but his works are now considered to have been revolutionary and influential on subsequent artists. A half-century after his death Correggio's work was well known toVasari,who felt that he had not had enough "Roman" exposure to make him a better painter. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, his works were often noted in the diaries of foreign visitors to Italy, which led to a reevaluation of his art during the period ofRomanticism.The flight of the Madonna in the vault of the cupola of the Cathedral of Parma inspired many scenographical decorations in lay and religious palaces during those centuries.
St. Jerome, Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Madrid, c. 1515–1518Madonna della Scala(c. 1523)—Fresco, 196 × 141.8 cm, Galleria Nazionale, Parma
The Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine,c. 1526–27
Head of Christ(1525–1530)
Venus and Cupid(1525)
Assumption of the Virgin,Duomo,Parma,1522–30
Ganymede Abducted by the Eagle(1531–32)
Portrait of a Man (c. 1520), Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid
Media related toAntonio da Correggioat Wikimedia Commons
