In this intimate devotional panel, the young Correggio demonstrated his own evolving style while also assimilating lessons from other great painters of his era. The work’s pyramidal grouping of figures reflects the style of Raphael, while their soft outlines and the Virgin’s enigmatic smile recall the work of Leonardo da Vinci. The landscape in the background adds to the painting’s charm and demonstrates the artist’s knowledge of Northern European precedents. The gentle sensuousness of the figures and the tenderness they show one another, however, are unique to Correggio. The artist used color, light, and shadow to bathe the image in a gentle glow, with skin and fabrics taking on a velvety texture.
Correggio lived and worked in the northern Italian city of Parma, executing a body of work that is remarkable for its inventiveness and sophistication given his remove from the artistic centers of Rome, Florence, and Venice. This small panel is in his earliest style, but its idyllic quality presages the radiant ceiling frescoes of Correggio’s maturity, especially those in Parma’s cathedral (1526–30).
