CORRE'GGIO, A NTU'NIO ALLE'GRI, or, as he has been known to write it, LIE'TO, one of the first of painters, surnamed Cor reggio from the place of his birth, a small town in the duchy of Modena, was born towards the end of the year 1493, or early in 1494. Correggio's life is involved in impeuctrable obscurity. The only authentic records which exist are certain registered documents, public and private; but they serve only to throw a very feeble light upon his domestic life; our knowledge of it remains of a negative character. Some of his biographers, at the head of whom is Vasari, describe him as of humble origin, indigent, and penurious in his way of living ; others like Menge and Ratti draw his.deseent from a noble family of Correggio, once feudal lords of Campagnola and its castle in the Corregese. The truth appears to be that the Allegri from which Antonio descended, were a decent family of Correggio, while the conveyance and bequest of considerable property, including money, houses, and small portions of land, are too frequent among Antonio s immediate relations, to leave any doubt of his having been at least in easy circumstances. The statement of his having received very small sums for his pictures is also disproved by documentary evidence.
It is uncertain who was Correggio's first instructor. Francesco Bianchi, Lombardi, Tonino Bartolotto, and his uncle Lorenzo have been severally named as his instructors in the elements of his art ; and it is added by some that he afterwards studied under the sous of Mantegna. Mantegna himself even has been supposed to be his first master; but the fact of Mantegna having died in 1506, when Correggio was barely twelve years old, renders it very improbable. In Mantegua's works however we may recognise the germ of that sweet and graceful style which Correggio carried to perfection. That Correggio ever went to Romo is far fsom probable, since a contiuued series of documents prove him to have been habitually residing in Correggio at the time when some writers have supposed he visited Rome. If he ever went there it must have been for a mere visit. The mastery with which he treats classical subjects, has given rise to the supposition that he received a liberal education, and there is no proof to the contrary. It is certain also that his works display a considerable knowledge of architecture; but that be practised that art, or sculpture, as some of his biographers have asserted, is entirely without proof. Correggio married, in 1520, Girolama aferlini, of a wealthy family in Mantua, and by her had a son and three daughters. She is said to have been
tho trlginal iu his picture of the Holy Family, 'mown as La Zinga rella.' The supposition that he married a second time probably arose from a mistake in a certain register, iu which his wifo's Christian name is misstated. He died on the 5th of March 1534, and was buried in tho church of St. Francis at Correggio.
Correggio is one of the most original of painters, as well as one of the greateet of colourists. He formed a style completely his own, remarkable for masterly chiaroscuro, exquisite colouring, and the most graceful design. Less varied and decided iu his outline than the painters of the Roman and Florentine schools, he is more anxious to dispose his lines in easy flowing curves than to display knowledge of anatomy or powerful drawing. Nevertheless, his forms are sufficieutly correct, and the consummate skill shown in his endless foreshortenings proves that his smoother style of drawing was dictated by no want of studs or deficiency of ability. While Titian's colouring is bolder, more varied, and more powerful than Correggio's, it is not so full of beauty and a certain mild and rich luxuriousneis. There is the same difference between the two that there is between a bed of glowing flowers and a pulpy cluster of grapes laughing from under the vine leaves. More studied in his use of light and shade than any of his brother painters, he gives to his pictures an air of space which mocks the limits of the frame; a depth and unity, the force of which Rem brandt alone has exceeded, and no one else approached; but the Flemish painter's sun never shines upon forms like the Italian's—it is mostly a "god kissing carrion." The expression which Correggio infuses into the lovely creations of his pencil is in harmouy with the grace of his drawing, the pure sweet colouring, and the concordant tone of the picture. Avoiding harsh and unpleasant subjects, and delighting in the play of tender and voluptuous emotions, his mothers fondle their offspriog, his children frolic and smile, his lovers pant and sigh, with all the ecstacy of unreproved nature. If his beings arc of a less mighty mould than Michel Angelo's. his colour less powerful in its tints, and his expression less passionate than Titian's, and if his be less perfect and less exalted than Raffaelle's, no artist has equalled him in gentleness and sweetness, and none calls forth the affections of the spectator in a more lively manlier.