Antonio da Correggio
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Antonio Allegri da Correggio (August 1489 – March 5, 1534) was the foremost painter of the Parma school of the Italian Renaissance, who was responsible for some of the most vigorous and sensuous works of the 16th century. In his use of dynamic composition, illusionistic perspective and dramatic foreshortening, Correggio prefigured the Rococo art of the 18th century.
He is sometimes compared to his contemporary in the North: Hans Baldung Grien.
Mythological series based on Ovid's Metamorphoses
Aside from his religious output, Correggio conceived a now-famous set of paintings depicting the Loves of Jupiter as described in Ovid's Metamorphoses. The voluptuous series was commissioned by Federico II Gonzaga of Mantua, probably to decorate his private Ovid Room in the Palazzo Te. However, they were given to the visiting Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and thus left Italy within years of their completion.
Leda and the Swan, now in Staatliche Museen of Berlin, is a tumult of incidents: in the centre Leda straddles a swan, and on the right, a shy but satisfied maiden. Danaë, now in Rome's Borghese Gallery, depicts the maiden as she is impregnated by a curtain of gilded divine rain. Her lower torso semi-obscured by sheets, Danae appears more demure and gleeful than Titian's 1545 version of the same topic, where the rain is more accurately numismatic. The picture once called Antiope and the Satyr is now correctly identified as Venus and Cupid with a Satyr.
Ganymede Abducted by the Eagle depicts the young man aloft in literal amorous flight. Some have interpreted the conjunction of man and eagle as a metaphor for the evangelist John; however, given the erotic context of this and other paintings, this seems unlikely. This painting and its partner, the masterpiece of Jupiter and Io (reproduced above), are in Kunsthistorisches Museum of Vienna.
See also
Selected works
- Judith and the Servant (around 1510) Oil on canvas - Musée des Beaux-Arts, Strasbourg
- The Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine (1510-15) - National Gallery of Art, Washington
- Madonna (1512-14) - Oil canvas, Castello Sforzesco, Milan
- Madonna with St. Francis (1514) - Oil on wood, 299 x 245 cm, Gemäldegalerie, Dresden
- Madonna of Albinea (1514, lost)
- Madonna and Child with the Young Saint John (1516) - Oil canvas, 48 x 37 cm, Museo del Prado, Madrid
- The Adoration of the Magi (1516-18)- Oil canvas, 84 x 108 cm, Brera, Milan
- Virgin and Child with an Angel (Madonna del Latte) (date unknown) - Oil on wood, 68 x 56 cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
- The Rest on the Flight to Egypt with Saint Francis (1517) - Oil on canvas, 123,5 x 106,5 cm, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence
- Portrait of a Gentlewoman (1517-19) - Oil on canvas, 103 x 87,5 cm, Hermitage, St. Petersburg
- Adoration of the Child (1518-20) - Oil on canvas, 81 x 67 cm, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence
- Camera di San Paolo (1519) - Frescoes, Nunnery of St Paul, Parma
- Passing Away of St. John (1520-24) - Fresco, S. Giovanni Evangelista, Parma
- Madonna della Scala (c. 1523) - Fresco, 196 x 141,8 cm, Galleria Nazionale, Parma
- Deposition from the Cross (1525)- Oil canvas, 158,5 x 184,3 cm, Galleria Nazionale, Parma
- Noli me Tangere (c. 1525) - Oil canvas, 130 x 103 cm, Museo del Prado, Madrid
- Ecce Homo (1525-30) - Oil canvas, National Gallery, London
- Madonna della Scodella (1525-30) - Oil canvas, 216 x 137 cm, Galleria Nazionale, Parma
- Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine (1526-27) - Wood, 105 x 102 cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris
- Assumption of the Virgin (1526–1530) — Fresco, 1093 x 1195 cm, Cathedral of Parma
- Madonna of St. Jerome (1527-28) - Oil on canvas, 205,7 x 141 cm, Galleria Nazionale, Parma
- The Education of Cupid (c. 1528) - Oil canvas, 155 x 91 cm, National Gallery, London
- Venus and Cupid with a Satyr (c. 1528) - Oil on canvas, 188 x 125 cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris
- Nativity (Adoration of the Shepherds, or Holy Night (1528-30) - Oil on canvas, 256,5 x 188 cm, Gemäldegalerie, Dresden
- Madonna with St. George (1530-32) - Oil on canvas, 285 x 190 cm, Gemäldegalerie, Dresden
- Danaë (c. 1531) - Tempera panel, 161 x 193 cm, Galleria Borghese, Rome
- Ganymede abducted by the Eagle (1531-32) - Oil on canvas, 163,5 x 70,5 cm, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
- Jupiter and Io (1531-32) - Oil canvas, 164 x 71 cm, Kunsthistorisches Museum
- 'Leda and the Swan' (1531-32) - Oil canvas, 152 x 191 cm, Staatliche Museen, Berlin
- Allegory of Virtue (c. 1532-1534) - Oil canvas, 149 x 88 cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris