Apostles and Angels at the Assumption (copy of the fresco in the cupola of Parma Cathedral)

This copy of Correggio's famous Assumption fresco in the Parma Cathedral dome at the V&A preserves the composition of one of the most revolutionary paintings in Western art. The original fresco, completed around 1530, created an illusionistic opening in the dome with the Virgin ascending through swirling tiers of figures. Antonio da Correggio, working in Parma in the early sixteenth century, was among the most original and influential Italian painters of the High Renaissance. His soft atmospheric modeling (learned from Leonardo), his dynamic compositions designed for ceiling decoration (anticipating the Baroque), and his warm, sensuous approach to both sacred and mythological subjects made him a decisive figure in the transmission of Italian Renaissance painting toward the Baroque. Vasari, who never visited Parma, may have underestimated his significance; later critics, beginning with Bellori, recognized him as one of the foundational figures of the entire European painting tradition after Raphael.

The copy translates Correggio's daring illusionistic composition from fresco to canvas. The spiraling arrangement of figures seen from below demonstrates the dramatic foreshortening that made the original a landmark of Western painting.