much truth that nothing better could be either imagined or expressed; on a plain at the foot of the mountain are seen the three Apostles lying asleep: the shadow of the eminence on which the Saviour is in prayer falls over these figures, imparting to them a degree of force which it would not be possible adequately to describe in words. In the farther distance is a tract of country over which the day is just breaking, and from one side approaches Judas with soldiers. Notwithstanding its minute size, this work is admirably conceived, and so finely executed that no work of the kind can bear comparison with it, whether as to the beauty and depth of thought apparent in the picture, or the patience with which it has been treated.[1]
Of the works of this artist much more might be said, but since every thing he has done is held to be as something divine among the most eminent masters of our calling, I will not expatiate further.[2] I have made many efforts to obtain his portrait, but he never took it himself, nor ever had it taken by others, seeing that he lived much in retirement; I have therefore not been able to procure it.[3] Correggio was indeed a person who held himself in but very slight esteem, nor could he even persuade himself that he knew any thing satisfactorily respecting his art; perceiving its difficulties, he could not give himself credit for approaching the perfec-
- ↑ Scannelli, Microcosmo della Pittura, Cesena, 1657, relates that Correggio gave this picture to an apothecary in payment of a bill amounting to some four or five scudi. It was afterwards sold, to the Count Pirro Visconti for four hundred, scudi. At a later period the work became the property of the King of Spain; and we find it further related that after the battle of Vittoria it was found, with other valuable pictures, on the imperial of Joseph Buonaparte’s carriage, by an officer in the army of Lord Wellington. Waagen, Kunstwerke, &c., declares it with truth to be now in possession of the duke, to whom it was, in fact, presented by Ferdinand VI1. of Spain, d'here is a replica of this picture in our National Gallery.
- ↑ In the British Museum the reader will find a complete series of engravings after Correggio.
- ↑ At a later period many portraits were dispersed about as those of Correggio, but they are, for the most part, notoriously spurious, as, for example, is that given by Bottari; neither is it to be supposed that the head painted by Gambara, near the principal door of the cathedral of Parma, is the true likeness of Correggio, since Gambara did not live till long after the presumed original of this work.— See Lanzi, ut supra. See also Fiorillo, Geschichte der Malerei, &.c.
