Background
His early years were spent in these two places, and after some preliminary training in art he entered the school of Bianchi Ferrari in Modena. Not long afterward Ferrari died, however, and Correggio then went to Mantua, where he came into contact with the art of Andrea Mantegna, whose influence after his death in 1506 was transmitted both by his pictures and his pupils. At this time also, influences from Leonardo da Vinci appear in Correggio's work, but the means by which Correggio became acquainted with Leonardo's style are not known. His own early style is illustrated by The Marriage of St. Catherine in the Louvre and the Dresden Madonna Blessing St. Francis (c. 1515).
In 1518 Correggio went to Parma to continue his career. The illusionistic tendencies apparent in his work at this time can be seen in his frescoes for the Convent of San Paolo, and these tendencies he carried still further in the cupola of the Church of San Giovanni, where he painted his Ascension of Christ in the period from 1521 to 1524. His next commission, in 1522, was the decoration of the dome of the Cathedral of Parma, a vast fresco whose theme was the Assumption of the Virgin. Correggio here achieved even greater triumphs of originality in his foreshortening and illusionistic spatial treatment and established a model for his followers. He continued work in the Cathedral until about 1530; and the decoration, which he left uncompleted, was finished by his pupils after his death in 1534. Later easel paintings by Correggio include mythological and allegorical as well as religious subjects. Among the best known are the paintings popularly called Day, now in Parma, and Night, now in Dresden; Leda, in Berlin; Jupiter and Antiope, in the Louvre; and the so-called La Zingarella, in Naples. The formal training of Correggio did not extend beyond the brief teaching of Ferrari and contact with the works of Mantegna and Leonardo. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he did not travel to the art centers of Italy, and his life was spent quietly in Mantua, Modena, Parma, and his native town of Correggio, where he returned to spend his last four years. Although he may have been well known locally, his fame was not widespread in his day. Correggio's personality and quiet life, rather than outside influences, were the factors which formed his mature style. Thus he tended to employ an emotional treatment of moving forms in space rather than an intellectual and academic perspective and emphasized chiaroscuro and color to enhance his beautiful forms and surfaces. The resulting art, non-intellectual and often even without profound emotional depths though it was, was a sincere and convincing expression of Correggio's character.