Antonio da Correggio

Antonio Allegri da Correggio (August 1489 – 5 March 1534), usually known as just Correggio (, also , , ), was an Italian Renaissance painter who was the foremost painter of the Parma school of the High 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 the Baroque art of the seventeenth century and the Rococo art of the eighteenth century. He is considered a master of chiaroscuro.

Early life

Antonio Allegri was born in Correggio, a small town near Reggio Emilia. His date of birth is uncertain (around 1489). His father was a merchant. 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 painter Lorenzo Allegri.

In 1503–1505, he was apprenticed to Francesco Bianchi Ferrara in Modena, where he probably became familiar with the classicism of artists like Lorenzo Costa and Francesco Francia, evidence of which can be found in his first works. After a trip to Mantua in 1506, he returned to Correggio, where he stayed until 1510. To this period is assigned the Adoration of the Child with St. Elizabeth and John, which shows clear influences from Costa and Mantegna. In 1514, he probably finished three tondos for the entrance of the church 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 the Dresden 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.

Works in Parma

thumbnail|300x300px|[[Nativity (Correggio)|Nativity (c.1529–30), Gemäldegalerie Dresden]]By 1516, Correggio was in Parma, where he spent most of the remainder of his career. Here, he befriended Michelangelo Anselmi, a prominent Mannerist painter. In 1519 he married Girolama Francesca di Braghetis, also of Correggio, who died in 1529. These two works represented a highly novel illusionistic sotto in su treatment of dome decoration that would exert a profound influence upon future fresco artists, from Carlo Cignani in his fresco Assumption of the Virgin, in the cathedral church of Forlì, to Gaudenzio Ferrari in his frescoes for the cupola of Santa Maria dei Miracoli in Saronno, to Pordenone in his now-lost fresco from Treviso, and to the baroque elaborations of Lanfranco and Baciccio in 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 characterize Baroque painting.

Other masterpieces include The Lamentation and The Martyrdom of Four Saints, both at the Galleria Nazionale of Parma. The Lamentation is haunted by a lambency rarely seen in Italian painting prior to this time. The Martyrdom is also remarkable for resembling later Baroque compositions such as Bernini's Truth and Ercole Ferrata's Death of Saint Agnes, showing a gleeful saint entering martyrdom. Correggio had no direct disciples outside of Parma, where he was influential on the work of Giovanni Maria Francesco Rondani, Parmigianino, Bernardo Gatti, Francesco Madonnina, and Giorgio Gandini del Grano.

Selected works

thumb|[[Venus and Cupid with a Satyr (c. 1528), Louvre, Paris]]

thumb|[[Allegory of Virtue (Correggio)|Allegory of Virtues, c. 1525–1530]]

thumb|Madonna and Child with infant Saint John the Baptist, c. 1514–1515, [[National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne]]

Judith and the Servant (c. 1510)—Oil on canvas, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Strasbourg
Holy Family with Saints Elizabeth and John the Baptist (c. 1510)—Oil on panel-Pavia Civic Museums, Pavia
The Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine (1510–1515)—National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Madonna (1512–14)—Oil on canvas, Castello Sforzesco, Milan
Madonna and Child with St Francis (1514)—Oil on wood, 299 × 245 cm, Gemäldegalerie, Dresden
Madonna and Child (unknown, early 1500s)—Oil on canvas, National Gallery for Foreign Art, Sofia
Madonna of Albinea (1514, lost)
Madonna and Child with the infant Saint John the Baptist (1514–15)—Oil on wood panel, 45 × 35.5 cm, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Madonna and Child with the Infant John the Baptist (c. 1515)—Oil on panel, 64.2 × 50.2 cm, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago
The Holy Family with Saint Jerome (1515)–East Closet of Hampton Court Palace as part of the Royal Collection
Madonna and Child with the Young Saint John (1516)—Oil on canvas, 48 × 37 cm, Museo del Prado, Madrid
Adoration of the Magi (c. 1515–1518)–Oil on canvas, 84 × 108 cm, Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan
Saint Jerome (c. 1515–1518)–Oil on Wood 64 x 51 cm, Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Madrid
Madonna and Child with the Infant John the Baptist (1518)–Oil on panel, 48 x 37 cm, Museo del Prado, Madrid
Portrait of a Lady (c. 1517–1520)—Oil on canvas, 103 × 87.5 cm, Hermitage, St. Petersburg
Frescoes for Camera di San Paolo (1519)—Monastery of San Paolo, Parma
The Rest on the Flight to Egypt with Saint Francis (c. 1520)—Oil on canvas, 123.5 × 106.5 cm, Uffizi Gallery, Florence
Portrait of a man (c. 1520)–Oil on canvas, 55 x 40 cm, Museo Nacional Thyssen Bornemisza, Madrid.
Death of St. John (1520–1524)—Fresco, San Giovanni Evangelista, Parma
thumb|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
Martyrdom of Four Saints (c. 1524)—Oil on canvas, 160 × 185 cm, Galleria Nazionale, Parma
Virgin and Child with an Angel (Madonna del Latte) (c. 1524)—Oil on wood, 68 × 56 cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
Lamentation (1525)—Oil on canvas, 158.5 × 184.3 cm, Galleria Nazionale, Parma
Noli me Tangere (c. 1525)—Oil on canvas, 130 × 103 cm, Museo del Prado, Madrid
Ecce Homo (1525–1530)—Oil on canvas, National Gallery, London
Madonna della Scodella (1525–1530)—Oil on canvas, 216 × 137 cm, Galleria Nazionale, Parma
Adoration of the Child (c. 1526)—Oil on canvas, 81 × 67 cm, Uffizi Gallery, Florence
Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine (mid-1520s)—Wood, 105 × 102 cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris
Assumption of the Virgin (1526–1530)—Fresco, 1093 × 1195 cm, Cathedral of Parma
Madonna of St. Jerome (1527–28)—Oil on canvas, 205.7 × 141 cm, Galleria Nazionale, Parma
Venus with Mercury and Cupid ('The School of Love') (c. 1528)—Oil on canvas, 155 × 91 cm, National Gallery, London
Venus and Cupid with a Satyr (c. 1528)—Oil on canvas, 188 × 125 cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris
Nativity (Adoration of the Shepherds, or Holy Night) (1528–1530)—Oil on canvas, 256.5 × 188 cm, Gemäldegalerie, Dresden
Madonna and Child with Saint George (1530–1532)—Oil on canvas, 285 × 190 cm, Gemäldegalerie, Dresden
Danaë (c. 1531)—Tempera on panel, 161 × 193 cm, Galleria Borghese, Rome
Ganymede Abducted by the Eagle (1531–32)—Oil on canvas, 163.5 × 70.5 cm, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
Jupiter and Io (1531–32)—Oil on canvas, 164 × 71 cm, Kunsthistorisches Museum
Leda with the Swan (1531–32)—Oil on canvas, 152 × 191 cm, Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen, Berlin
Allegory of Virtue (c. 1531)—Oil on canvas, 149 × 88 cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris
Allegory of Vice (c. 1531)—Oil on canvas, 149 × 88 cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris

File:Correggio - Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine with Saint Sebastian - Louvre.jpg|The Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine, c. 1526–27

File:Correggio (Antonio Allegri) (Italian) - Head of Christ - Google Art Project.jpg|Head of Christ (1525–1530)

File:Correggio, madonna di hampton court.jpg|The Holy Family with Saint Jerome (1515)

File:Correggio Venus with Mercury and Cupid or The School of Love.jpg|Venus and Cupid (1525)

File:Cupola Duomo Parma Correggio.jpg|Assumption of the Virgin, Duomo, Parma, 1522–30

File:Correggio - La Vergine che adora il Bambino - Google Art Project.jpg|Adoration of the Christ Child (1526)

File:Antonio Allegri, called Correggio - The Abduction of Ganymede - Google Art Project.jpg|Ganymede Abducted by the Eagle (1531–32), Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna

File:Correggio, Ritratto di dama, c.1517-1518.jpg|Portrait of a Lady (<abbr>c.</abbr> 1517–<abbr>c.</abbr> 1520), Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg

File:Correggio, ritratto di scolaro.jpg|Portrait of a Man (c. 1520), Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid

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References

External links

http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/correggio/
Catholic Encyclopedia article It does not cite the mythological theme pictures.
Correggio, by Estelle M. Hurll, 1901, from Project Gutenberg
Works by Correggio at www.antoniodacorreggio.org
Correggio exposition in Rome, Villa Borghese, 2008
Video—Il Duomo di Parma, Assumption of the Virgin
Dr. Julius Meyer, Antonio da Correggio
More complete list of works by Correggio (with images)