New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1896-03-01
CORREGGIO.
A NEW LIFE OF A misunderstood
PAINTER

ANTONIO ATLEGRI DA CORREGGIO HIS ,'fe'
HIS Friends. and His Time, Ey Corrado kicci,
director Of the Royal Gallery. Parma From
the Italian by Florence Simmonds. With 81 full
poEe plates and 1870 text Illustrations Folio. PIP.
XXI. 4os New-York Charles scrlbner's sons
Twenty-Five years ago there was published by
Julius Meyer IN Ieipsic. book on Corrpgg'o.
which has ever since been accepted by students
as the most authoritative work on its subject.
But while Meyer did much to correct the mis-
takes Of his predecessors and made Vasari. Tira-
boschi. Pungeoni and others more interesting
than they had been before he wrote. II Is never
theless true that he himself contributed to tho
mass Of confusing literature which has risen
steadily around the Parmesan master since his
death Giovanni Morell. writer whose services
TO the art history Of Italy have been OF the high
est value threw little more light on the life and
work Of Correggio and was particularly assid-
uous In tracing some Of the lost signs OF SYM
patty between his painter and the school OF Fer
rara Yet Morelli also left many questions on
dcbatable ground. and following in his footsteps
Dr. Ricci attempts to defend at least one hy-
pothesis which he cannot prove II VIII be seen
that the final work Correggio has still 10 be
written. Until II comes DR. Ricci will occupy the
field triumphantlv. He IS the latest, most thor
oughy equipped biographer and critic OF the mas
ter and, on the whole he Is the best. AS a.
rector or the ROyal IdlieTy III Idllld H' has
lived for years among the easel pictures and
frescoes Of Correggio. He Is a sympathetic In
terpreter keen critic, n judclous historian. and
writes with persuasive skill 10 which the trans
lator Of his work hss done full Justice. The pub
fishers have brought out this volume in hand
some style. illustrating 1t with so many photo
gra phic reproductions that the work may justly
claim to show Correggio with a completeness
and an accuracy hitherto unknown In the history
Of his art. DR.. Ricci arrives at one or two I'M
fortunate conclusions. but these apart he hns
done his work so we'll weighing his predecessors
with so much tact and putting 80 much original
research into the book. that he may be said 10
present his subject for the first time exactly as
he should be presented.
II this has not been done before II has been
chiefly because historians have studied Correggio
too much ard his surroundings too little. They
have isolated Antonio Allegri from his native
town of Correggio and made him Independent Of
the Emilian life In which. as Dr. Rect IL careful
70 poin, out. ne undoubtedly had share. This
IN an important point. Correggio may be freely
enough detached from the schools OF his time.
Pint his art owed some Of its finest fibres to an
environment which his biographers have usually
preferred to ignore. He Is not easily Identified
with this or that group Of painters and Accord
inely the critics have Jumped to the conclusion
that ne was associated with no wide movement
at all, that he lived alone because ne worked
alone and was as solitary figure In the Droad
civilization Of his era as ne was In its art. Or.