CORREGGIO One painter who developed a
unique personal style that is almost impossible to
classify was Antonio Allegri, known as Correg-
gio(ca. 1489–1534) from his birthplace, near
Parma. The teacher of Parmigianino, Correggio,
working more than a half century before Veronese,
pulled together many stylistic trends, including
those of Leonardo, Raphael, and the Venetians.
Correggio’s most enduring artistic contribution
was his development of illusionistic ceiling per-
spectives. In Parma Cathedral, he painted away
the entire dome with his Assumption of the Virgin
(FIG. 22-50). Opening up the cupola,Correggio
showed worshipers a view of the sky, with con-
centric rings of clouds where hundreds of soaring
figures perform a wildly pirouetting dance in cel-
ebration of the Assumption. Versions of these an-
gelic creatures became permanent tenants of numerous Baroque
churches in later centuries. Correggio was also an influential painter
of religious panels, anticipating in them many other Baroque com-
positional devices. Correggio’s contemporaries expressed little ap-
preciation for his art. Later, during the 17th century, Baroque
painters recognized him as a kindred spirit.Sculpture
Mannerism extended beyond painting. Artists translated its princi-
ples into sculpture and architecture as well.
BENVENUTO CELLINIAmong those who made their mark
as Mannerist sculptors was Benvenuto Cellini(1500–1571), the au-
thor of a fascinating autobiography. It is difficult to imagine a me-
dieval artist composing an autobiography. Only in the Renaissance,
with the birth of the notion of individual artistic genius, could a work
such as Cellini’s (or Vasari’s Lives) have been conceived and written.
Cellini’s literary self-portrait presents him not only as a highly accom-
plished artist, but also as a statesman, soldier, and lover, among many
other roles. He was, first of all, a goldsmith, but only one of his majorworks in that medium survives, the saltcellar (FIG. 22-51) he made
for Francis I (FIG. 23-10), who had hired Cellini with a retainer of an
annual salary, supplemented by fees for the works he produced. The
price paid for this luxurious gold-and-enamelitem destined for the
French royal table was almost 50 percent greater than Cellini’s salary
for the year. Neptune and Tellus (or, as Cellini named them, the Sea—
the source of salt—and the Land) recline atop an ebony base deco-
rated with relief figures of Dawn, Day, Twilight, Night, and the four
winds—some based on Michelangelo’s statues in the Medici Chapel
(FIG. 22-17) in San Lorenzo. The boat next to Neptune’s right leg con-
tained the salt, and the triumphal arch (compare FIG. 10-75) next to
the right leg of the earth goddess, the pepper. The elongated propor-
tions of the figures, especially the slim, small-breasted figure of Tellus,
whom ancient artists always represented as a matronly woman (FIG.
10-30), reveal Cellini’s Mannerist approach to form.GIOVANNI DA BOLOGNA The lure of Italy drew a brilliant
young Flemish sculptor, Jean de Boulogne, to Italy, where he prac-
ticed his art under the equivalent Italian name ofGiovanni da
Bologna(1529–1608). Giovanni’s Abduction of the Sabine Women618 Chapter 22 ITALY,1500 TO 160022-50Correggio,Assumption of the Virgin,
1526–1530. Fresco, 35 10 37 11 .Parma
Cathedral, Parma.
Working long before Veronese, Correggio, the
teacher of Parmigianino, won little fame in his day,
but his illusionistic ceiling designs, like this one in
Parma Cathedral, inspired many 17th-century
painters.10 ft.22-51ACELLLINI,
Genius of
Fontainebleau,
1542–1543.