Antonio da Correggio: 5 works

'Correggio's "Holy Night" was already a famous painting when it was purchased by August III in 1746, together with the hundred masterworks from the d'Este collection in Modena.'

'No craftsman ever painted with greater delicacy, such was the softness of his flesh painting, and such the grace with which he finished his works' wrote Giorgio Vasari, in his chronicle Lives of the Artists, of Correggio.'

'Correggio painted the commonest of the various versions of the ancient myth: Jupiter approached Leda on the banks of the river Eurota in the guise of a swan and seduced her.'

'Correggio visually anchored the group on all sides: the eagle's wings are cropped, the tree on the left "supports" Ganymede from below, and the youth's delicate leg "rests" on a range of gentle hills in the background.'

'(Ps. 42:1.)Correggio's ability to combine a mystical depiction of nature with the classical figural ideal and the expression of sublime emotion made especially his later works important forerunners of Baroque artistic principles.'