(real name Antonio Allegri). Born circa 1489 in Correggio, Emilia; died there Mar. 15, 1534. High Renaissance Italian painter.

Correggio worked in Parma and Correggio. He was influenced by Andrea Mantegna, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Dosso Dossi. His works, which are marked by gentle beauty and intimate charm, reflect the gradual decline of heroic Renaissance ideals and the emergence of new artistic forms and principles. In Correggio*s monumental paintings the playful lightness and decorative elegance of such works as the frescoes in the Convent of San Paolo in Parma (1517–20) were replaced by a search for dynamic expression. The complicated foreshortening and vortical upward movement of composition in his frescoes for the Church of San Giovanni Evangelista (1520–23) and for the Cathedral of Parma (1526–30) anticipated the spatial effects of the baroque style. Correggio’s easel pictures reflect a festive, secular spirit and are marked by the intimate softness of images, the efficaciousness of graceful poses and movement, the dynamic asymmetry of composition, and a luminous, decorative, and fanciful palette. These smaller works include Madonna of St. Francis (1514–15, Dresden Picture Gallery), Madonna of St. George (1530–32, Dresden Picture Gallery), and The Marriage of St. Catherine (Louvre, Paris).

To intensify the emotional impact of his work, Correggio sometimes resorted to contrasting, nocturnal effects of illumination (Adoration of the Shepherds, or Night, 1530, Dresden Picture Gallery). His representations of mythological scenes, such as Danae (c. 1526, Borghese Gallery, Rome) and The Rape of Ganymede (c. 1530, Museum of Fine Arts, Vienna), are notable for their subtle hedonism and eroticism and for their versatile compositional resolutions.