Correggio

(1489/94-1534)

   Professional name of the painter Antonio Allegri, born in the small Lombard town of Correggio. Probably trained by an uncle and influenced by the works of Andrea Mantegna, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, and Michelangelo, he spent most of his career at Parma and developed a style notable for its emotional sensuality and the use of colors offset by the technique of chiaroscuro. His work is often interpreted as a precursor of the baroque style, and though his paintings were not especially influential in his own century, about 1600, as baroque style matured, they began to be highly regarded. His fresco The Assumption of the Virgin on the dome of Parma cathedral is a striking example of his religious painting, but his later work, done for the duke of Mantua, was erotic in spirit and was dominated by pagan mythology.