around 1489 -1534 · Emilian Renaissance and illusionism of Parma

Domes open to the sky, softness of faces, sensual chiaroscuro and intimate mythologies make Correggio a major inventor of the Italian Renaissance.

Antonio Allegri, known as Correggio after his hometown, was born around 1489 and became the main Emilian painter of the early 16th century. His training remains poorly documented, but his art assimilates Mantegna, the engravings of the North, Leonardo da Vinci and Venetian color. In Parma, he profoundly renewed the monumental fresco: the dome of San Giovanni Evangelista then the Assumption of the cathedral visually abolished the architecture and led the eye into a whirlwind of body and light. At the same time, he painted famous altarpieces, virgins of great tenderness and small religious scenes where chiaroscuro becomes emotion. For Federico II Gonzaga, he designs a mythological series devoted to the loves of Jupiter, including Danae, Leda, Ganymede and Jupiter and Io. His supple, sensual and luminous manner prepares the baroque while influencing Parmigianino and numerous European painters. Died in Correggio in 1534, he left a relatively rare but far-reaching work. The "Correggio" selection notably compares The Mystical Marriage of Saint Catherine with Saint Sebastian and The Virgin with Saint Jerome, known as The Day. His reading favors details.

In Correggio, light does not just illuminate: it envelops bodies, dissolves architecture and transforms the story into an apparition.