Detail from Madonna with Saint Jerome and Mary Magdalen (Il Giorno)

This detail from Correggio's Madonna with Saint Jerome and Mary Magdalen (Il Giorno) at the Middlesbrough Institute preserves a fragment of one of his most celebrated altarpieces. The original, now in Parma, is considered among the finest achievements of Italian Renaissance painting for its luminous color and emotional depth. Correggio's Madonna paintings are among the most technically accomplished devotional works of the Italian Renaissance, distinguished by the soft atmospheric modeling he absorbed from Leonardo and developed into something entirely personal. Working primarily in Parma, away from the major centers of Italian Renaissance culture, he developed an independent artistic language characterized by warm light, soft contours, and the specific quality of tender emotional intimacy that made his works enormously popular. His influence on subsequent European painting — particularly the Baroque emphasis on emotional accessibility and the Rococo celebration of sensuous beauty — was foundational, the tradition descending from him through Annibale Carracci to the entire seventeenth-century Italian tradition.

The fragment preserves Correggio's extraordinary luminous painting, with the warm golden light that earned the original its nickname "Il Giorno" (The Day). The soft modeling and rich color demonstrate his revolutionary handling of light.