CORREGGIO or COREGGIO, the name given to Antonio Allegri 0494-1534), Italian painter, one of the most vivid and impulsive inventors in expression and pose and the most consum mate executants. His father was Pellegrino Allegri of Correggio, a small city in the territory of Modena; his mother Bernardina Piazzoli degli Aromani. Antonio was born in Correggio. He studied anatomy under Dr. Giovanni Battista Lombardi, whom he is believed to have represented in the portrait currently named "Il Medico del Correggio" (Correggio's physician). It is con cluded that he learned the first elements of design from his uncle, Lorenzo Allegri, at Correggio, and from Antonio Bartolotti, named Tognino, and that he afterwards went to the school of Francesco Ferrari Bianchi (named Frare), and perhaps to that of the suc cessors of Andrea Mantegna in Mantua. He is said to have learned modelling along with the celebrated Begarelli at Parma.
One of his early pictures, painted in 1514 when he was g or 20 years old, is a large altar-piece commissioned for the Franciscan convent at Carpi, representing the Virgin enthroned, with saints; it indicates a predilection for the style of Leonardo da Vinci. This picture is now in the Dresden gallery. Another painting of Cor reggio's youth is the "Arrest of Christ." A third is an Ancona (or triple altar-piece--the "Repose in Egypt, with Sts. Barth°lo tnew and John") in the church of the Conventuali at Correggio, showing the transition from the painter's first to his second style. In 1521 he began his famous fresco of the "Ascension of Christ," on the cupola of the Benedictine church of San Giovanni in Parma. This he finished in 1524, and soon afterwards undertook his still vaster work on another cupola, that of the cathedral of the same city, presenting the "Assumption of the Virgin," which occupied him up to 153o. He was the first Italian artist who ever undertook the painting of a large cupola and went at once to the extreme of what can be adventured in fore-shortening, even forestalling in this attempt the mightiest geniuses of an older generation—the "Last Judgment" of Michelangelo, for instance, not having been begun earlier than 1533 (although the ceiling of the Sistine chapel, in which fore-shortening plays a compara tively small part, dates from i5o8 to 1512).
Other leading works by Correggio are: the frescoes in the Camera di San Paolo (the abbess's salon) in the monastery of St. Lodovico at Parma, painted towards 1519 in fresco—"Diana returning from the Chase," with auxiliary groups of lovely and vivacious boys of more than life size, in 16 oval compartments. In the National Gallery, London, the "Ecce Homo," painted prob ably towards 152o, and "Cupid, Mercury and Venus," the latter a fine example. The oil-painting of the Nativity named "Night" ("La Notte"), undertaken at Reggio in 1522 for Alberto Prato neris, now in the Dresden gallery. The oil-painting of St. Jerome, termed also "Day" ("Il Giorno"), as contrasting with the above named "Night." Jerome is here with the Madonna and Child, the Magdalene, and two angels. This was painted for Briseida Bergonzi from 1527 onwards, and is now in the gallery at Parma. The "Magdalene lying at the entrance of her Cavern": this small picture (only i8in. wide) was bought by Augustus III. of Saxony for 6,000 louis d'or, and is in Dresden. In the same gallery, the two works designated "St. George" (painted towards 1532) and "St. Sebastian." In the Parma gallery, the Madonna named "della Scala," a fresco which was originally in a recess of the Porta Romana, Parma; also the Madonna "della Scodella" (of the bowl, which is held by the Virgin—the subject being the Repose in Egypt) : it was executed for the church of San Sepolcro. Both these works date towards 1526. In the church of the Annuncia tion, Parma, a fresco of the Annunciation. Five celebrated pic tures painted or begun in 1532—"Venus," "Leda," "Danae," "Vice," and "Virtue": the "Leda," with figures of charming girls bathing, is now in the Berlin gallery. In the Louvre, "Jupiter and Antiope," and the "Mystic Marriage of St. Catharine." In the Na ples museum, the "Madonna Reposing," commonly named "La Zingarella," or the "Madonna del Coniglio" (Gipsy-girl, or Ma donna of the Rabbit). On some of his pictures Correggio signed "Lieto," as a synonym of "Allegri." About 4o works can be con fidently assigned to him, apart from a multitude of others prob ably or manifestly spurious.
In 152o Correggio married Girolama Merlino of Mantua. She was but 16 years of age and is said by tradition to have been the model of his Zingarella. They had four children; she died in 152g. Correggio died at his native place on March 5, 1534, and was buried with some pomp in the Arrivabene chapel, in the cloister of the Franciscan church at Correggio.
Correggio was the head of the school of painting of Parma, which forms one main division of the Lombardic school. Of his pupils one can name with certainty only his son Pomponio, who was born in 1521 and died at an advanced age; Francesco Capelli ; Giovanni Giarola; Antonio Bernieri (who, being also a native of the town of Correggio, has sometimes been confounded with Allegri); and Bernardo Gatti, who ranks as the best of all.