Correggio [Hardcover]

Dr. David Ekserdjian (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 21, 1998

This beautifully illustrated book is the first full-scale chronological and critical account of the paintings and drawings of Correggio (c.1489-1534) -- a genius of the Italian Renaissance who became one of the most influential of all European painters. David Ekserdjian discusses Correggio's mythological, erotic, and religious paintings -- including many altarpieces -- and closely examines the attribution, chronology, physical appearance, and subject matter of these works. He also looks closely at Correggio's drawings, which provide many interesting insights into the artist's creative process. The book's numerous color illustrations include recently cleaned frescoes in Parma, as well as other works that have been transformed through restoration, mid some previously unknown paintings and drawings that have re-emerged and are here published for the first time.

Ekserdjian places the artist in the context of sixteenth-century Italy and of the north Italian artistic tradition. Correggio was unique as an artist of the first rank who worked only in the provinces, far from the major art centers in Florence, Venice, and Rome. His isolation had a significant effect on his development, the author contends, although Correggio was sensitive to the influences of his contemporaries: Mantegna and Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael. Ekserdjian reveals Correggio as a profoundly serious as well as intensely joyous religous artist, and as a great innovator -- he was among the first major artists to experiment with the dramatic effects of light and was a master of illusionism. The author examines documentary material that sheds new light on Correggio's patrons, the question of whether (and if so, when)Correggio went to Rome, and the simultaneous projects the artist undertook during the crucial decade of the 1520s, when he was at his most prolific and inspired.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Correggio is unique in his blending of late Renaissance and Mannerist ideas. Much of the scant information about him is drawn from wills, letters, and other third-party documents and presents a challenge to anyone working on it. Using his doctoral thesis on Correggio's altarpieces as a base, Ekserdjian expands his analytical involvement with the artist's work and explores the influences on him by such icons as Mantegna, Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael. The text consists of an introduction and 12 chapters in four parts focusing on the full range of the artist's work from his earliest paintings to the cupola of the Parma Cathedral and the mythology paintings. Engaging the scholarship of his predecessors, Ekserdjian documents the arguments that surround the artist's work. There are 299 illustrations throughout, more than half in colorAenough to satisfy the discerning eye. Much about Correggio has been revealed in the last 20 years, both in research and restoration, making this book appealing to all students of 16th-century painting. Recommended for large public, academic, and museum art collections.AEllen Bates, New York
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Correggio is the twenty-second artist to be profiled in this reasonably priced yet high-quality paperback series devoted to artists of the Italian Renaissance. Each volume in the Library of Great Masters provides succinct historical and biographical information about the artist and his work, accompanied by approximately 100 colorplates including many full-page (81/4 inches by 11 inches) reproductions. The series, produced and originally published in Italy, covers the work of such well-known artists as Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Botticelli, Donatello, and Raphael as well as painters who deserve greater recognition, including Pontormo, the subject of a forthcoming volume. These color-rich and finely detailed books are excellent introductions to the lives and work of remarkable and enduringly influential Renaissance artists and contain substantially more examples of their paintings and sculptures than a chapter on Italian art in a standard art-history textbook. And the price can't be beat. Donna Seaman --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 344 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (January 21, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300072996
• ISBN-13: 978-0300072990
• Product Dimensions: 11.8 x 10.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,193,803 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #24 in Books > Arts & Photography > Schools, Periods & Styles > Mannerism

Customer Reviews

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5.0 out of 5 stars Great service, excellent book, fine quality, April 2, 2010

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This review is from: Correggio (The Library of Great Masters) (Paperback)

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