CORREGGIO, Antonio (Antonio Allegri)

(c. 1490-1534)

Antonio Correggio was the most important painter of the High Renaissance in northern Italy outside of Venice; his art combined technical control with a profound expressive effect that exercised a strong influence on the development of baroque art.

Born in a provincial backwater, the town of Correggio in north central Italy, Correggio seems to have appeared out of the blue. His training and education are unknown, although it has been suggested that he may have apprenticed with a pupil of Andrea Mantegna. In 1519 he moved to Parma, where he worked until 1530. There he painted a series of panels and frescoes that create an ex­traordinary effect on the viewer.

Correggio's first impressive work is a fresco decoration, 1520-25, in the dome and apse of San Giovanni Evangelisti in Parma. The decoration is not a cycle, but a single event—the vision of St. John the Evangelist on Patmos—painted with all the illusionistic techniques and dramatic energy the artist could muster. The success of this work led to the commission for a fresco in the much larger dome of Parma Cathedral (1526-30). Although the subject is different—the Assumption of the Virgin—Correggio uses the same illusionism, agitation, and naturalism that served him so well in San Giovanni. Both frescoes reveal an artist who tries to draw the spectator into the religious event, physically and emotionally.

At the same time, Correggio painted a series of altarpieces that work to in­volve the viewer. They are characterized by active figures, intense feeling, and strong light effects. Rather than traditional symmetry and clear space, he uses asymmetrical compositions and sharp foreshortenings to convey an air of ex­citement.

From the 1520s on Correggio also produced a number of mythological paint­ings for private collectors, the most famous of which is Jupiter and Io (Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, c. 1532). These lush and tactile paintings deal openly with human sexuality; arousal, pleasure, and sensory stimulation are all suggested by Correggio's naturalistic forms, dramatic light, and dynamic com­positions.

Correggio was obviously familiar with the art of Leonardo da Vinci, Mi­chelangelo,* Raphael,* and Titian,* but the effect of his work goes beyond what these High Renaissance masters attempted. His intensity of expression and form can only be defined as protobaroque.

Bibliography

D. Ekserdjian, Correggio, 1997.

C. Gould, The Paintings of Correggio, 1976.

Jane C. Long