Leonardo da Vinci (Gallery of the Arts)

Description

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Correggio

Description

Correggio

BORN: August 1489 in Correggio, Italy.
DIED: March 5, 1534 in Correggio, Italy.

MOVEMENT: Renaissance

INTERESTING FACTS:
Correggio was born Antonio Allegri. He took the name of the city where he was born.
Correggio was influenced by Andrea Mantegna.
In 1519, Correggio’s first commission in Parma, Italy was the ceiling in the convent of St Paul.

NOTABLE WORKS:
Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine, Madonna with St. Francis, Nativity and Assumption of the Virgin.

CORREGGIO Art Book contains 50+ reproductions of frescoes, religious and mythical scenes with title and date.

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Correggio's Frescoes in Parma Cathedral

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Correggio's depiction of the Virgin's Assumption into heaven, painted in the cupola of the Duomo of Parma, is widely viewed as one of the most inventive and influential fresco cycles of the Renaissance. Even so, the very elements that make the work so powerful--its lively iconography and its illusionism--have long been decried by critics for their apparent illegibility and lack of decorum. In the first book-length study of these frescoes in English, Carolyn Smyth counters such negative criticism by taking into account the viewer's in situ experience of the frescoes. In so doing, she offers a new reading that explores the artist's knowing use of figural perspective, the architectural and liturgical context, and the religious significance of the theme.

Aided by new photographs of the fresco, taken by Ralph Lieberman, Smyth leads the reader from the door of the cathedral to the apse, in order to examine the lay worshipper's experience from a series of partial views in the nave and the contrasting vistas of the clergy in the presbytery. As each of these separately revealed sequences of the cycle is discussed, new elements appear and are interpreted. The gestures, figural relationships, activities, and attributes visible from each viewpoint convey specific meanings that reveal, too, the most relevant aspect of the Assumption theme for the participant below. Not only the spatial communicativeness of the painting but also the affective warmth of Correggio's style are seen as means to celebrate Mary's redemptive role and its implications for the Christian audience.

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The Siege of Malta, 1565: Translated from the Spanish Edition of 1568 (First Person Singular)

Description

This is the history of one of the great battles of the world, written by a private soldier who was an eye-witness. The siege of Malta was a crucial moment in the long struggle between Islam and Christendom for domination of the Mediterranean, fought out by unequal forces on the small island which commands the sea-routes at the centre of that sea. The Knights of St John were a survival from the medieval world, the largest of the surviving crusading orders, and they had been driven out of their base on Rhodes in the eastern Mediterranean after a great onslaught by the Turks in 1522. Now, forty-three years later, the Turkish ruler, Suleyman the Magnificent, who had been the victor at Rhodes, was determined to finish them off. He sent out a huge armada, carrying the pick of his army, under two commanders. Against this powerful force, the Knights could only raise a handful of men and mercenaries, and had to depend on the fortifications they had raised in the thirty-five years since they first came to Malta, which bore no comparison to the massive walls and ditches on Rhodes. Francisco Balbi di Correggio was a humble soldier of fortune who enlisted under the charismatic command of the Grand Master of the Order, Jean de la Valette. The extraordinary drama that unfolded after the first appearance of the Turkish fleet in the summer of 1565 is told in his own words, giving equal credit to the courage and leadership of the Knights and the grim determination of the ordinary people of Malta.

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An Italian Journey: Drawings from the Tobey Collection, Correggio to Tiepolo (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Description

This handsome book presents highlights from one of America’s preeminent private collections of Old Master drawings, assembled over the past fifteen years by Julie and David Tobey. Ranging in date from the 16th through the 18th century, some 70 drawings—many previously unpublished—are featured, including works by brilliant draftsmen such as Correggio, Parmigianino, Giulio Romano, Bernini, Poussin, Guercino, Ribera, Canaletto, and Tiepolo. Impressive in their variety of subjects, the drawings include figure studies, historical and mythological narratives, landscapes, vedute, botanical drawings, motifs copied from or inspired by classical antiquity, and designs for painted compositions. All the works are illustrated in color and accompanied by numerous comparative illustrations; brief biographies of each artist are also included.

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The Age of Correggio and the Carracci: Emilian Painting of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

Description

This six hundred page catalog created by an international team of scholars provides new insights into 16th and 17th century Emilian painting. Over 200 paintings are reproduced and discussed in detail; the entries are accompanied by longer essays that address important thematic issues.

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