Madonna with St. Francis

Correggio's Madonna with Saint Francis, painted around 1514-1515 for the Franciscan church in Correggio, is one of his earliest altarpieces. The conventional sacra conversazione format is already being transformed by Correggio's emerging gift for soft, atmospheric luminosity The Madonna and Child was the most ubiquitous devotional subject of medieval and Renaissance art, present in every church and many private homes as a focus for prayer and spiritual contemplation.

The warm, diffused light and gentle sfumato already distinguish Correggio's approach from the harder modeling of contemporary Emilian painters, anticipating the luminous effects of his mature work.