Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine CORREGGIO c. 1526

Saint Sebastian is the other figure with St. Catherine of Alexandria.

Correggio's actual name was Antonio Allegri; he was born in 1489 and died in 1534. An Italian he took his artist's name named after the small town in Emilia where he was born. Little is known of his life, but his paintings suggest under whom he may have formed his style: Mantegna's manner in many of his early paintings indicate that he may have studied that master's work in Mantua, and he was influenced in these works also by Lorenzo Costa and Leonardo, adopting Costa's pearly coloring.

He was probably in Parma, the scene of his greatest activity, by 1518. His first major commission was for the decoration of the abbess's room in the convent of San Paolo there. The San Paolo ceiling was followed by two dome paintings in which Correggio developed the technique, which had already been used by Mantegna, of painting a scene as though it were actually taking place in the sky above [sotto in su]. The first of these domes was commissioned for the church of San Giovanni Evangelista in 1520. The twelve Apostles sit on clouds round the base, while Christ is shown in sharp foreshortening ascending to Heaven. In the commission six years later for an Assumption of the Virgin in the dome of Parma Cathedral he used the same principle, but on a much larger scale. These works reveal Correggio as one of the boldest and most inventive artists of the High Renaissance and they were highly influential on the development of Baroque dome painting-----such as Lanfranco, a native of Parma.

The theme of the Mystical Marriage of Saint Catherine was one of the favorites for compositions with Saints and or Angels for centuries.


 





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