Grace, a little nude and the antique idea of perfection in the frescoes of the High Renaissance painter Correggio

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Italian Parma is famous not only for its football team and excellent cheese varieties, but also for the delightful examples of fresco paintings that adorn the interior of the Cathedral. Among them is the dome, painted by one of the greatest artists of the Renaissance and complementing the treasury of world works of art that have survived to this day. Correggio, creator of the fresco "The Assumption of Our Lady", and his other works showed how close the Renaissance masters came to the ancient idea of perfection and harmony.

Antonio Allegri of Correggio

The life of this Italian artist was relatively short, but the glory of Correggio - or Antonio Allegri, that was his real name - survived him for many centuries, and the painting of this master of the High Renaissance continues to arouse admiration even now, both among connoisseurs of the Renaissance and among the inexperienced spectators. Correggio's paintings and frescoes have a remarkable ability to attract and retain attention - vividness of images, complexity of compositions and angles, softness and at the same time boldness of contours.

He was born in about 1489 in the small town of Correggio in northern Italy, and, like other masters of that period, was known under the name of his small homeland - Antonio da Correggio. The artist's father was a merchant, and his uncle, Lorenzo Allegri, was engaged in painting. He gave his nephew the first brush skills. Antonio had other teachers, and one of the most important subjects studied in childhood was anatomy. According to one version, Correggio studied in Modena, in the workshop of Francesco Ferrara. In general, little is known about his growing up and becoming an artist; art critics trace the master's biography after the beginning of his career.

At first, Correggio was strongly influenced by Andrea Mantegna and Lorenzo Lotto, and from 1514 he began to travel around Italy and study the works of Raphael, Titian, da Vinci, Michelangelo. The frescoes of the Sistine Chapel in Rome made an indelible impression on the young Correggio, inspiring himself to create masterpieces of fresco painting. By 1520, he completed the painting of the chambers of the abbess of the monastery in San Paolo, Correggio, commissioned by the abbess, created frescoes on mythological subjects. This monument of Renaissance art has been perfectly preserved to this day.

Dome of Parma Cathedral and other works by Correggio

Perhaps the most famous creation by Correggio is the painting of the dome of the Cathedral in Parma, the fresco "The Assumption of Our Lady." Contemporaries did not particularly appreciate the innovative techniques of the master: in his desire to embody the effect of "revived sculpture", movements in a spiral saw "a stew of frog legs", even ideas arose to destroy the fresco.

Correggio's creation was saved by the words of Titian, who, when asked about the value of the painting, answered: “If you take the dome, turn it over and fill it with gold coins, then this painting will be more expensive.” Correggio was one of the first to create the tradition of ceiling paintings that would take into account features of perspective, and therefore, required a somewhat distorted image of figures, which was customary in the traditions of easel painting. Around that time, the artistic device di sotto in su appeared, that is, "from the bottom up", which, among others, marked the transition to the Baroque era, when the premises began to be painted completely, including the upper part of the interior.

Correggio's paintings and frescoes are inherent in originality and uniqueness, while the artist's style has changed over time, as he improved his skills and opened up new possibilities for painting. If at first Correggio's creations resembled the works of Leonardo - the same transparent contours, a subtle play of chiaroscuro, then later the colors on his canvases became more saturated, contrasting, the artist intensifies the emotional component of the play of light, the composition becomes more complex and tense.

Correggio, as a true master of the Renaissance, embodied ancient traditions in his works - for example, he portrayed beautiful and virtuous faces as impassive, motionless, while laughter marked vicious faces. A significant number of the artist's works were myths and allegories, the latter especially loved by Isabella d'Este, Duchess of Mantua, who ordered several paintings for her collection from Correggio.

And from about 1530, on behalf of Duke Federico II, Gonzaga Correggio began a cycle of paintings about the love affairs of Jupiter, most of them were intended as a gift to the King of Spain, but some, in particular, "Jupiter and Io", Gonzaga, apparently, ordered for his palazzo.

The only painting by Correggio in Russia

And now Correggio's works attract attention with a complexly built composition and angles unusual for Renaissance artists, they not only violate the pictorial traditions of depicting typical subjects from Christian and ancient mythology that existed at that time, but also surprise with their natural grace, dynamism, expressiveness. And the landscapes, which the artist painted very rarely and rather as a background for his main idea, he succeeded extremely well. In general, the artist's legacy is primarily paintings that glorify everything sensual, this is a kind of ode to hedonism.

In Russia, Correggio is represented by only one work - this is "Portrait of a Lady", written around 1518. Portraits were a rarity among Correggio's paintings; the name of the woman on the canvas is unknown. Perhaps the woman was related to the Franciscan order - this can be indicated by the color and style of her dress. The authorship of the painting was established relatively recently, in the last century, while earlier it was assumed to belong to the brush of Lorenzo Lotto.

Having inherited the skills of handling money from his father, Correggio invested his earned work in agricultural land, and so he lived. In 1519 he married sixteen-year-old Girolama Merlini, with whom he lived for nine years. After a difficult birth, his wife died, and Correggio was left with four children, two survived to adulthood.

According to contemporaries, primarily the chronicler of the Renaissance Giorgio Vasari, the artist was extremely stingy. Closed in nature, he spent time at work or with his family. Correggio died at the age of 45, after he left Parma for his hometown and, heated, drank cold water, after which he fell ill with a fever and never got up again.

The most outstanding student of Correggio was Parmigianino, who also experimented with space and proportion.