Correggio, Antonio Allegri da

(1494-1534)

   Painter from Parma whose works anticipated the artistic developments of the Baroque era. Correggio was deeply influenced by Leonardo da Vinci, from whom he adopted the emphasis on earth tones and use of sfumato to soften contours. Correggio's works also demonstrate his awareness of Raphael's paintings in Rome, which he may have studied through engravings then circulating in Italy and abroad. Correggio was a master of illusionism, as exemplified by his dome frescoes in the Church of San Giovanni Evangelista and the Cathedral of Parma. The first painting is titled the Vision of St. John the Evangelist on Patmos (1520-1524) and the second the Assumption of the Virgin (1526-1530). In both, figural poses recall those rendered by Raphael in the Vatican Stanze (1510-1511) and Villa Farnesina, Rome (1513-1518). Yet, Correggio's foreshortening is so pronounced that the figures seem to be rising to heaven, their undersides clearly discerned. These works were to have an impact on the illusionistic ceilings of the Baroque era, particularly those rendered by Giovanni Lanfranco whose Virgin in Glory at Sant' Andrea della Valle, Rome, is completely based on Correggio's Assumption.

   Among Correggio's individual religious paintings are the Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine (c. 1520; Paris, Louvre), Il Giorno (after 1523; Parma, Galleria Nazionale), La Notte (1522; Dresden, Gemäldegalerie), and Noli me tangere (c. 1525; Madrid, Prado). These feature soft, sensuous figures linked through gestures to create deeply emotional scenes. Among Correggio's mythologies are his Danaë (c. 1531; Rome, Galleria Borghese), Jupiter and Ganymede, and Jupiter andIo (both early 1530s; Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum), all three painted for Federigo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua. These portend the sensuous French Rococo renditions of the 18th century.