picture was our Saviour Christ appearing to Mary Magdalene in the form of the Gardener;[1] and this painting, which was executed with a degree of perfection, and finished with a softness to which no words could do justice; this work, I say, did so possess itself of the heart of Girolamo, that he could not satisfy himself w’ith copying it, and at length set off for Modena, to see the other works of Correggio in that place. Arrived there accordingly, Girolamo was filled with admiration at the sight of what he beheld, but he was struck with astonishment by one among them more than by all besides. This was a large picture, which is, indeed, most divine: the subject of the work is Our Lady with the Divine Child in her arms, the infant being in the act of placing the ring on the finger of Santa Caterina, whom he is espousing.[2] There is, besides, a San Sebastiano and other figures, with expressions of countenance so beautiful that those faces appear to have been made in Paradise; the hair and hands, moreover, are such that it is not possible to imagine any thing more perfect in their kind, nor can anything painted be more natural or more life-like.
From the Doctor, Messer Francesco Grillenzoni, the owner of the picture, and who had been an intimate friend of Correggio, Da Carpi obtained permission to copy the same, which he did with all the care that it is possible to conceive.
He afterwards did as much in respect to the picture of San Pietro Martire,[3] which Correggio had painted for a company of laymen, by which it is held in the high estimation which it so justly deserves. In this work, to say nothing of the other-figures, there is most particularly to be remarked,
- ↑ Mentioned in the Life of Correggio. See vol. ii. p. 407, note §.
- ↑ This picture, which in the seventeenth century was in possession of Cardinal Sforza, came afterwards into that of the French king, and is still in the Louvre. It has been engraved by Etienne Picard, and the small replica at Naples has been engraved by Jacob Felsing. In the Hermitage at St. Petersburg there is a picture exactly similar to that at Naples, and which bears the following inscription:—Laus Deo. Per Donna Metilde d'Este Antonio Lieto di Correggio fece il presenti per sun Divozione, 1517.
- ↑ The St. Peter the Martyr was one of those pictures which passed from the Gallery of the House of Este to that of the king of Poland: it is now in the Dresden Gallery, where it is called the St. George, from the circumstance of that Saint holding a prominent position in the picture.
