Antonio Allegri da Correggio, his life, his friends, and his time . the folds. This gives their figures an unearthlyappearance, as If they had alighted for a moment, pausing In someaerial llight, and ready to mount again at the first sign fromheaven. Their almond eyes, which have no transparency, no luminousgleam to Indicate lustre and convexity, seem to be mirrors of pro-found abstraction, In which faith has quenched all traces of humandesire, while the pallor of the carnations, which results from glazes laidon over a green ground, seems to hint at suffering and self-denial,rigorous fasts, lo
Antonio Allegri da Correggio, his life, his friends, and his time . the folds. This gives their figures an unearthlyappearance, as If they had alighted for a moment, pausing In someaerial llight, and ready to mount again at the first sign fromheaven. Their almond eyes, which have no transparency, no luminousgleam to Indicate lustre and convexity, seem to be mirrors of pro-found abstraction, In which faith has quenched all traces of humandesire, while the pallor of the carnations, which results from glazes laidon over a green ground, seems to hint at suffering and self-denial,rigorous fasts, long nights si)ent in prayer and meditation. icnn by tlic eternal cuunscl pre-ordained. rRIMITIVl. I\ ART ./u If therefore ihe an of ihe fourleenlh century appeared to bemystical in its tendencies, because of the imperfect means of (ex-pression at its command, it is only natural that tlic art which hadobtained an absolute mastery of form and (>xprf-ssion should seemworldly and material. No figure created by an .artist of the Renaissance was likely to. the Borghcse Gallery, be accepted as a miraculous image by the populace. Byzantines andfourteenth-century effigies were readily accounted of supernaturalorigin by the mass of the de\-out. Their very ugliness and want ofobjective truth were their best recommendations. They seemed themore marvellous to the credulous the more they diverged from reality,from the normal types of men and women. Many perceive super- 362 ANTONIO DA OORREGGIO human qualities where humanity is lacking, and discern the divine inthe unnatural. Not one of the fair and blooming Madonnas of the Renaissance,with their sweet and smiling humanity, least of all those painted byCorreggio, received a tithe of the devout gifts and prayers lavished onsome dry, angular Byzantine figure, or some pallid and sleepy Virginof the fourteenth century. How indeed is it to be supposed that such creations as theJMadomia dclla Scodclla, or the Madonna with St. George,
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