Pietà

This Pietà from around 1512 at the Civic Museum in Correggio, the artist's hometown, represents his early engagement with the most emotionally demanding subject in Christian art. Even at this early stage, Correggio shows an instinct for tender pathos that would distinguish his mature sacred paintings. 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 composition presents the dead Christ mourned by the Virgin with restrained emotional intensity. Correggio's early handling shows the beginnings of his characteristic soft modeling and warm tonal harmonies.