ON BOOKS OF REFERENCE

The first biographer of Correggio was Vasari, in whose "Lives of the Painters, Sculptors, and Architects" is included a brief account of this painter. The student should read this work in the last edition annotated by E. H. and E. W. Blashfield and A. A. Hopkins. Passing over the studies of the intervening critics, Julius Meyer's biography may be mentioned next, as an authoritative work, practically alone in the field for some twenty-five years. This was translated from the German by M. C. Heaton, and published in London in 1876. Finally, the recent biography by Signor Corrado Ricci (translated from the Italian by Florence Simmonds, and published in 1896) may be considered almost definitive. It is issued in a single large volume, profusely illustrated. The author is the director of the galleries of Parma, and has had every opportunity for the study of Correggio's works and the examination of documents bearing upon his life.

General handbooks of Italian art giving sketches of Correggio's life and work are Kugler's "Handbook of the Italian Schools," revised by A. H. Layard, and Mrs. Jameson's "Early Italian Painters," revised by Estelle M. Hurll.

For a critical estimate of the art of Correggio a chapter in Burckhardt's "Cicerone" is interesting reading, but the book is out of print and available only in large libraries. In "Italian Cities," by E. H. and E. W. Blashfield, a delightful chapter on Parma describes Correggio's works and analyzes his art methods. Morelli's "Italian Painters" contains in various places some exceedingly important contributions to the criticism of Correggio's works. The author's repudiation of the authenticity of the Reading Magdalen of the Dresden Gallery has been accepted by all subsequent writers.

Comments on Correggio are found in Symonds's volume on "The Fine Arts" in the series "The Renaissance in Italy," and are also scattered through the pages of Ruskin's "Modern Painters" and Hazlitt's "Essays on the Fine Arts." The volume on Correggio in the series "Great Masters in Painting and Sculpture" is valuable chiefly for a complete list of Correggio's works. The text is based on Ricci.[3]