They appeal to us not religiously, not historically, not
intellectually, but sensuously and artistically through their rhythmic
lines, their palpitating flesh, their beauty of color, and in the
light and atmosphere that surround them. He was less of a religionist
than Andrea del Sarto. Religion in art was losing ground in his day,
and the liberality and worldliness of its teachers appeared clearly
enough in the decorations of the Convent of St. Paul at Parma, where
Correggio was allowed to paint mythological Dianas and Cupids in the
place of saints and madonnas. True enough, he painted the religious
subject very often, but with the same spirit of life and joyousness as
profane subjects.
[Illustration: FIG. 46--CORREGGIO. MARRIAGE OF ST. CATHERINE AND
CHRIST. LOUVRE.]
The classic subject seemed more appropriate to his spirit, and yet he
knew and probably cared less about it than the religious subject. His
Dianas and Ledas are only so in name. They have little of the
Hellenic spirit about them, and for the sterner, heroic phases of
classicism--the lofty, the grand--Correggio never essayed them.
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