Correggio

Antonia da Correggio was born in Correggio, Italy in 1489, his exact date of birth is uncertain. He is most well known for his fresco, Assumption of the Virgin, located in the dome of the Parma Cathedral. Although his art took place in the Italian Renaissance, Correggio’s individual style prefigured Rococo art. Correggio came from a merchant family, but little is known about his early life and artistic training. It has been suggested that he received his first artistic education from his uncle, Lorenzo Allegri. Patrons in Parma and Mantua mainly commissioned his works. In 1503-1505 Correggio apprenticed Francesco Bianchi Ferrara in Modena and became very familiar with the classicism of art and artists there. His very first work, the Adoration of the Child with St Elizabeth and John, shows the clear influences from his teacher and the classicism of some artists he met in Modena. In 1514 he finished three tondos for the entrance of Sant’Andrea in Mantua, and also signed a contract to construct the Madonna altarpiece in the St Francis monastery. After doing small things in Mantua with little success Correggio moved on to Parma. Correggio made friends easily and befriended Michelangelo Anselmi, who was a prominent Mannerist painter. In 1519 he married Girolama Francesca di Braghetis, eventually one of their sons became a painter also. In 1526-27 he created the painting Mystic Marriage of St Catherine, which was an important display of high renaissance, art and exhibits Leonardo’s influence. In Parma he created Jupiter and Io, which shows eroticism, radiance, and color pallet associated with his most well known work. Correggio’s first major commission came in 1519 with the decoration of the private dining salon of St Paul at Parma. He painted an arbor with and oculi opening with cherubs. The iconography of this piece is complex, combining classical and whimsical elements together. Three years later Correggio made his most well known artwork, decorating the dome of the Parma Cathedral with the Assumption of the Virgin. This piece crowded layers of receding figures with the stumato technique, recalling illusionism and creating narrative along with using dramatic foreshortening. This showed a thrusting perspective of divine infinity. This piece influenced many upcoming artists of the coming age. Correggio created his own individual style, and through his artistic training and blending the styles of powerhouses such as Leonardo da Vinci’s soft modeled forms, spotlighting effect of illumination, stumato and Raphael’s idealism. Other masterpieces include [|The Lamentation] and [|The Martyrdom of Four Saints], both at the Galleria Nazionale of Parma. Correggio was a master in his own right and created precedents that many artists followed in later eras. The great painter died March 5th, 1534 once again home in Correggio, Italy.