Saint Thomas Surrounded by Angels (copy of the fresco in the cupola of Parma Cathedral)

This copy of Saint Thomas Surrounded by Angels from Correggio's Parma Cathedral dome at the V&A documents another section of his revolutionary fresco cycle. Thomas is shown among clouds of angels in the dramatic sotto in su perspective that made the dome a pilgrimage site for generations of artists. Correggio's saint paintings for the churches and private patrons of Parma demonstrate his development of the Italian devotional tradition into something unique — warmer in tone, softer in modeling, more emotionally direct than either the Florentine or Venetian traditions he knew through study and reputation. His figures emerge from atmospheric shadow into warm light with a quality of psychological presence that was widely imitated across the seventeenth century. Working in the regional context of Parma rather than the cosmopolitan centers of Florence, Rome, or Venice, he developed an independent artistic voice that was recognized by contemporaries as exceptional and that later critics would identify as a crucial bridge between the High Renaissance and the Baroque.

The copy preserves the dramatic foreshortening and atmospheric luminosity of Correggio's dome figures. The saint is shown amid swirling angels in the upward perspective that characterized his illusionistic ceiling painting.