Correggio

Antonio Allegri, better known as Correggio (1494–1534) was no intellectual, but a daring master of foreshortening in large works (his virtuoso frescoes in the cupola of Parma Cathedral, where the saints soar into a miasma of leggy angels, were called ‘a hash of frogs’ by a contemporary), and painter of emotional nuances, charming gesture, and smoky Leonardo-esque shadowing in his more intimate scenes.

Coreggio's lofty reputation in the 18th century was based largely on his voluptuous mythological fancies, the inspiration for so much of this kind of art in the centuries that followed; for these you’ll have to travel to Berlin, Rome, Dresden and Paris; in Modena, however, you can see his beautiful Madonna Campori in the Galleria Estense.