Correggio, << kuh REHJ oh >> (1489?-1534), was one of the greatest painters of the Italian Renaissance. His most important works are frescoes (paintings on damp plaster) on two church domes in Parma, Italy. In these paintings, Correggio created the illusion that the ceilings open into the sky and many divine figures inhabit the clouds above the viewer’s head. This dramatic illusion influenced the paintings of the baroque period of the late 1500’s and the 1600’s.
Correggio’s early paintings of religious and mythological subjects show a delicate, graceful style. Correggio worked primarily in Parma, though his paintings suggest that he may have visited Rome during the 1500’s to become more familiar with the paintings of Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael. Correggio’s works show a more spirited emotional quality and dramatic handling of light than the paintings of those two masters.
Correggio’s real name was Antonio Allegri. He took his name from the Italian town of his birth. He died on March 5, 1534.
