Heads of Two Angels

These Heads of Two Angels from around 1522 at the National Gallery are fragments from Correggio's dome fresco in San Giovanni Evangelista, Parma. The frescoes represent one of the most innovative achievements in Italian art, creating the illusion of open sky viewed from below with figures in dramatic foreshortening. 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 angel heads show Correggio's mastery of soft modeling and warm flesh tones in fresco transferred to canvas. The upward-gazing expressions and flowing hair capture the dynamic movement of his illusionistic dome compositions.