Head of an Angel

This Head of an Angel by Correggio, held in the Glasgow Museums collection, is likely a fragment or study related to one of his major fresco cycles in Parma — either the Camera di San Paolo (1519), the dome of San Giovanni Evangelista (1520-1524), or the Cathedral dome (1526-1530). Correggio's angels are among his most celebrated creations, their soft, luminous beauty establishing an ideal that influenced devotional painting for centuries. The fragment demonstrates his extraordinary ability to imbue celestial beings with palpable warmth and humanity.

The angel's face is modeled with Correggio's characteristic sfumato, creating impossibly soft transitions between light and shadow that give the features an otherworldly luminosity. The warm palette and delicate brushwork in the hair and skin demonstrate the refined technique that made Correggio's angels paradigmatic for later painters.