Correggio, Antonio Allegri da

b. circa 1489; d. 1534

Italian painter, surnamed Correggio from the place of his birth, a small town near Modena. The details of his life are obscure, but Vascari comments on the penury of his existence caused by financial burdens of his family. He is said to have studied under Francesco Bianchi-Ferrari at Modena, but his early work shows the influence of Mantegna and Leonardo Da Vinci. Subsequent reminiscences of Raphael and Michelangelo suggest he visited Rome.

His style is remarkable for chiaroscuro unusually combined with beautiful colour. In 1518 Correggio was engaged on frescoes for the Camera di San Paolo in the monastery of S. Ludovico at Parma in which is seen the influence of Mantegna's Mantuan frescoes. There he also executed frescoes for the cupola of San Giovanni Evangelista (1520-23), and the Cathedral, Parma (1526-30). The latter fresco subject is The Assumption of the Virgin, and it excited the highest praise from Titian. The dramatically foreshortened figures seen from below inspired the subsequent development of illusionistic ceiling painting in Mantua and Venice, and anticipated the 17th century baroque ceilings and domes. In 1530 he returned to Correggio, where he lived until his death. Mythological pictures including Mercury instructing Cupid before Venus (National Gallery, London); Jupiter and Antiope (Louvre); and Danae (Rome). Among his sacred pictures are the famous La Notte 1529, a fine picture of the nativity in the Dresden Gallery; Ecce Homo (National Gallery), and the Marriage of St Catherine (Louvre).

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