Biography of Correggio

Sweet expressions

Year of birth: 1489
5 March 1534
Antonio Allegri, known as Correggio, has a biography difficult to reconstruct in detail. The date of birth is of 1489 in Correggio, starting from the date of conclusion of the contract for the construction of the Pala di San Francesco in 1514 the age of twenty-five years old at the time. According to Vasari instead the date is 1494. The news also affect his training. We talk about early days with Uncle Lorenzo and Antonio Bartolotti. He met Mantegna and was a pupil of Francesco Bianchi Ferrari and Antonio Begarelli. A hypothetical trip to Rome between the years 1513-1518 reveal the influence of Michelangelo and Raphael, not forgetting the Leonardo da Vinci programme. A spatial depth, light-dark effects, the use of perspective, the sweetness of expression of the characters together in one emotional style, fluid and bright are distinguishing features. Over the years 1514-1518 Correggio performs very important works such as "the adoration of the Magi", "la Madonna Campori" in Modena, "the Gypsy" di Capodimonte and the lost shovel of Albinea. Towards the late ' 20 in Parma decorate "the Abbess" at the monastery of San Paolo.
At this time the bride Girolama Merlini which gives him a son and three daughters. New commissions arrive like the decoration of the cupola of San Giovanni and the duomo of Parma. A characteristic of these works is an illusionism obtained without sheet music. His last years were spent in Correggio where he painted commissioned by Federico Gonzaga Duke of Mantua the "loves of Jupiter". A sudden evil grasps in 1534-probably the day 5 March-bringing it to death. For the record the Vasari indicates the death of Correggio as a cause of a trip from Parma in Correggio with a big bag of money.
Article contributed by the team of collaborators.