. Antonio Allegri da Correggio, his life, his friends, and his time. e tomb wasransacked with a great show of rever-ence and enthusiasm ; a number ofbones were removed, which were sentto the Palazzo Communale ;l the firstskull that was picked up was gravelyhanded round and examined by all theprosaic Hamlets present, and finallysent off to Modena. There were, ofcourse, other skulls in the tomb, butthese were not taken out with the bones,lest suspicion should be roused. It wasgiven out that only the skeleton of thepainter had been discovered, and thatthis had been equally divided betweenCorreggi
. Antonio Allegri da Correggio, his life, his friends, and his time. e tomb wasransacked with a great show of rever-ence and enthusiasm ; a number ofbones were removed, which were sentto the Palazzo Communale ;l the firstskull that was picked up was gravelyhanded round and examined by all theprosaic Hamlets present, and finallysent off to Modena. There were, ofcourse, other skulls in the tomb, butthese were not taken out with the bones,lest suspicion should be roused. It wasgiven out that only the skeleton of thepainter had been discovered, and thatthis had been equally divided betweenCorreggio and Modena ; the skull, that is to say, to the ducal city,2the rest of the body to his native town. Ercoles foolish and unworthy artifice has brought its own punish-ment in the discovery of the letters here reproduced. But even if 1 These bones were placed under the monument erected to Allegri at Correggioin 1880. 2 It is still preserved in the R. Instituto di Belle Arti at Modena. Why is it not sentback and replaced in some tomb in the church of San Francesco ?. STATUE OF CORREGGIO, BV AGOSTINOFERRARINI. In the Piazza, Parma. THE HISTORY OF A SKULL 339 these had never come to light, the fraud would have been exposed bythe anatomical examination of the skull, which shows it to have be-longed to a woman of advanced Such are the pitiless results ofcriticism, with its indiscreet insistence on proofs and verifications ! Butfor this merciless examination of facts, we should be admiring Cor-reggios lineaments in the face of a country priest, and reverencingthe skull of a toothless old woman as the shrine of his mighty genius!We are glad that our painters fellow-citizens took no part in this act ofdeceit and profanation. It would bea pity that even the slightest stainshould sully the history of their devo-tion. They watched with pride thedevelopment of his genius, gave himhis first commissions, secured thepeace of his last years, and stoutlyopposed the thief who substitutedcop
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