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WHAT IS ART?
For an explanation of the
aesthetic issues surrounding
the creative visual arts, see:
Art Definition, Meaning
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Early Works
In 1514, Correggio completed three tondos
for the entrance of the church of St Andrea in Mantua, before returning
to his home town where he signed a contract for an altarpiece in the local
monastery of S. Francesco. This work, Madonna with St Francis (1514-15,
Gemaldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden) shows traces of Lorenzo Costa (1460-1535)
- who influenced the Bolognese School of painting - and Leonardo
Da Vinci.
By 1516, Correggio was in Parma, where
he remained for much of his career. In 1519 he married Girolama Francesca
di Braghetis, also from Correggio, who died prematurely in 1529. One of
his sons, Pomponio Allegri, became a mediocre painter.
Frescoes
Correggio's first important commission
was a ceiling fresco - Camera di San Paolo (1519) - at the Convent
of St Paul in Parma. A highly innovative form of interior decoration,
it incorporated classical as well as more whimsical elements.
After this, he painted the illusionistic
Vision of St. John the Evangelist on Patmos (1520-21) for the dome
of the church of San Giovanni Evangelista. In his second dome fresco,
for the Cathedral of Parma, he painted a sensational Assumption of
the Virgin (1524-30). Both these imaginative works employed an illusionistic
sotto in su perspective, and had a huge impact on later fresco
artists, including: the Bolognese painter Carlo Cignani (1628-1719), the
Piedmont artist Gaudenzio Ferrari (1480-1546), the Venetian Pordenone
(1483-1539), the Baroque painter from Parma, Giovanni Lanfranco (1582-1647),
and the Genovese artist Giovanni Battista Gaulli (1639-1709) known as
Il Baciccio.
Mythological Paintings
Correggio's mythological canvases are especially
sensual and ahead of their time. They include: Danae (c.1531, Galleria
Borghese, Rome), Ganymede abducted by the Eagle (1531-32, Kunsthistorisches
Museum, Vienna) one of the four mythological paintings commissioned by
Federico II Gonzaga, Jupiter and Io (1531-32, Kunsthistorisches
Museum, Vienna), and Leda with the Swan (1531-32, Staatliche Museen,
Berlin).
Other Masterpieces
Correggio's other masterpieces include
pictures like: Lamentation (Deposition) (1525, Galleria
Nazionale, Parma) and The Martyrdom of Four Saints (Galleria Nazionale,
Parma). The latter is notable in that it informed later Baroque compositions
such as Truth by Bernini (1598-1680) and Death of Saint Agnes
(1660) by Ercole Ferrata (1610-86).
Reputation
Correggio had no workshop filled with apprentices
and assistants, nor any immediate successors or followers - save, perhaps
the Parma artists Giovanni Maria, Francesco Rondani, Parmigianino, Bernardo
Gatti and Giorgio Gandini del Grano - nor did he have any enduring impact
on the art of the 16th century. (According to Giorgio
Vasari, Correggio suffered by being a provincial artist.) But around
the start of the Baroque era (c.1600), as the Mannerist style lost ground,
his painting began to be more widely appreciated as being on a par with
that of Michelangelo and Raphael.
Broadly speaking, his work is now considered to have been revolutionary
and deeply influential on later artists.
Other Works
Correggio's other paintings, not mentioned
above, include:
- Judith and the Servant (c.1510)
Musee des Beaux-Arts, Strasbourg.
- Madonna (1512-14) Castello Sforzesco, Milan.
- Madonna and Child with the Young Saint John (1516) Prado Museum,
Madrid.
- The Mystic Marriage of St Catherine (c.1517) Louvre Museum.
- The Adoration of the Magi (1516-18) Brera, Milan.
- Virgin and Child with Angel (Madonna del Latte) Museum of Art,
Budapest.
- The Rest on the Flight to Egypt with Saint Francis (1517) Uffizi
Gallery.
- Portrait of a Gentlewoman (1517-19) Hermitage, St. Petersburg.
- Adoration of the Child (1518-20) Uffizi Gallery.
- Madonna della Scala (c. 1523) Galleria Nazionale, Parma.
- Noli me Tangere (c.1525), Prado Museum, Madrid.
- Ecce Homo (1525-30) National Gallery, London.
- Madonna della Scodella (1525-30) Galleria Nazionale, Parma.
- Madonna of St. Jerome (1527-28) Galleria Nazionale, Parma.
- The Education of Cupid (c.1528), National Gallery, London.
- Venus and Cupid with a Satyr (c.1528) Louvre Museum.
- Adoration of the Shepherds (1528-30) Gemaldegalerie Alte Meister,
Dresden.
- Madonna with St. George (1530-32) Gemaldegalerie Alte Meister,
Dresden.
- Allegory of Virtue (c.1532-34) Louvre Museum.
Paintings by Correggio can be seen in many
of the best art museums throughout the
world.
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