Antonio Allegri, known as “Il CORREGGIO", painter born in 1489 at Correggio, Reggio Emilia and died on 5th of March 1534. Perhaps he started his artistic education in his own country, with his uncle Lorenzo Allegri a mediocre pianter, then moved to Modena to the Francesco Bianchi Ferrari school (1503 - 1505) and then on to Mantova in the Mantenga tradition; amongst his first works are the frescoes in the church of San Andrea in Mantova.
His first dated work is the altar piece of the Madonna of San Francesco (Dresda) in
1514-15; after an intense period of maturity of his language with ideas from Leonardo and
after a trip to Rome, he meets Micheangelo and Raffaello. It is in this period of time,
amongst other works, that the work of the “Camera di San Paolo” in Parma was carried
out.
He achieved his full potential in his frescoes of the Dome of San Giovanni in Parma
(1520-1523).
His painting became more attentive to scenery and richer in colour gaining harmonic
composition: Ecce Homo (London, National Gallery), Sposalizio Mistico di Santa Caterina (Paris, Louvre) Madonna di San Sebastiano ( Dresda), Martirio dei Santi Flavia e Placido (Parma, Galleria Nationale).
Between 1526 and 1530 he created the frescoes on the dome of the “Duomo di Parma”.
For Federico Gonzaga he painted a series of mythological paintings based on the loves of
jupiter:Antiope (Paris, Louvre), Ganimede,Io (Vienna), Danae (Rome, Galleria Borghese),
Leda (Berlin, State Museum), in which he freely showed his preference for fluent, luminous forms.
Correggio made a profound influence to Northern Italian painting; his style with particular designs and techniques was revived and developed by the Carracci and their followers. Parma
dedicated an exhibition to the painter in the Pilotta, from 21st April to the 28th October
1935.
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