This exquisite small sheet is a preparatory study for the severely damaged fresco originally painted for the Church of San Francesco, Parma (now in the Galleria Nazionale, Parma). The drawing is highly worked in a rich mixture of media with the topmost layer in thick white gouache, anticipating the brilliant lighting and color of the fresco. The sheet is squared and, though small, may have been the final design, in which the painter (and perhaps his patrons) would have been able to visualize much of the final result on the wall. This and other sheets by Correggio in the same technique are perhaps the most painterly drawings made in Italy during this period. Correggio made a few changes between the drawing and the fresco: the number of angles is brought up to four and the burst of light behind the Virgin is still more extensive. Both fresco and drawing have generally been dated to 1522-25.
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Artwork Details
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Title:The Annunciation
Artist:Correggio (Antonio Allegri) (Italian, Correggio, active by 1514–died 1534 Correggio)
Date:ca. 1522–25
Medium:Pen and brown ink, brush and gray-brown wash, highlighted with white gouache, squared in red chalk, on paper tinted with reddish wash
Dimensions:3-3/4 x 6-3/4 in. (9.5 x 17.2 cm)
Classification:Drawings
Credit Line:Frederick C. Hewitt Fund, 1917
Accession Number:19.76.9
Inscription: Annotated in pen and ink on Pembroke mount (now lost) .... from vol 2: nd . No II (indicating the drawing's place in the Pembroke albums).
Possibly Thomas Herbert, 8th Earl of Pembroke (British); Henry Herbert, 10th Earl of Pembroke (British), by 1772 (was in Pembroke volume XU.3., dated 25 Nov. 1772); by descent to Reginald Herbert, 15th Earl of Pembroke (British); Pembroke Sale, Sotheby's, London, July 5–6, 9–10, 1917, no. 465
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Italian Renaissance Drawings from New York Collections," November 9, 1965–January 9, 1966.
London. British Museum. "Correggio and Parmigianino Master Draughtsmen of the Renaissance," October 6, 2000–January 7, 2001.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Correggio and Parmigianino Master Draughtsmen of the Renaissance," February 5–May 6, 2001.
Galleria Borghese, Rome. "Correggio e l'antico," May 28, 2008–September 21, 2008.
Galleria Nazionale, Parma. "Correggio," September 20, 2008–January 25, 2009.
Sandford Arthur Strong Reproductions in Facsimile of Drawings by the Old Masters in the Collection of the Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery at Wilton House. London, 1900, part 3, no. 25, repr. (as Correggio).
Thomas Sturge Moore Correggio. London, 1906, pp. 121, 242, 26, ill.
Bryson Burroughs "Drawings from the Pembroke Collection." in The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, vol. 14, no. 6, New York, June 1919, pp. 136 - 140.
Corrado Ricci Correggio: with 296 reproductions in collotype. London, 1930, fig. no. pl. 252b, p. 167.
Walter Mehring European Drawings from the Collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Portfolio of Collotype Reproductions [Vol. 1: Italian Drawings; Vol. 2: Flemish, Dutch, German, Spanish, French, and British drawings; Vol. 3: "New Series": Italian, Flemish, Dutch, German, Spanish, French, and British drawings]. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 3 vols., New York, 1942–44, also N.S., no. 8., cat. no. 19 (vol.1), fig. no. 19, ill.
"Some Italian Drawings in The Metropolitan Museum." Connoisseur. vol. 110, New York, January 1943, fig. no. 6, p. 150, ill.
Art Treasures of the Metropolitan: A Selection from the European and Asiatic Collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York, 1952, cat. no. 64.
Charlotte Heaton-Sessions "Drawings Attrbuted to Correggio in The Metropolitan Museum of Art." Art Bulletin. vol. 36, September 1954, fig. no. 1, p. 224, ill.
Arthur Ewart Popham Correggio's Drawings. London, 1957, p. 159, no. 49, fig. 55a, ill.
Jacob Bean 100 European Drawings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: New York Graphic Society, 1964, cat. no. 18, fig. no. 18, ill.
Jacob Bean, Felice Stampfle Drawings from New York Collections, Vol. I: The Italian Renaissance. Exh. cat. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1965, p. 49, no. 68, ill.
Denys Sutton "Robert Langton Douglas, Part III, Agent for the Metropolitan Museum." Apollo. ., London, June 1979, fig. no. 16, p. 433, ill.
Jacob Bean, Lawrence Turčić 15th and 16th Century Italian Drawings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1982, cat. no. 60, fig. no. 60, p. 71, ill.
Diane DeGrazia Correggio and His Legacy, Sixteenth Century Emilian Drawings. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., Washington, DC, 1984, pp. 96-97, no. 18, ill.
Mario Di Giampaolo, Andrea Muzzi Correggio i disegni. Exh. cat. Archivi di Storia dell'Arte, Torino, 1988, cat. no. 54, ill.
David Ekserdjian Correggio. New Haven and London, 1997, pp. 96, 144-45, fig. 159.
Carmen C. Bambach, Martin Clayton, George R. Goldner, Hugo Chapman Correggio and Parmigianino: Master Draughtsmen of the Renaissance. Exh. cat., The British Museum, London, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. London, 2000-2001, p. 64, no. 25, pl. 25 (entry by George R. Goldner).
Anna Coliva Correggio e l'antico Exh. cat., Galleria Borghese, Rome (May 22 - September 14, 2008). Rome and Milan, 2008, p. 157, no. 39 (entry by David Ekserdjian), ill.
Lucia Fornari Schianchi Correggio. Exh. cat., Galleria Nazionale, Parma (September 20, 2008 - January 25, 2009). Milan, 2008, pp. 356, 405, no. IV.27 (entry by Mary Vaccaro), ill.
Laura Giles, Lia Markey, Claire Van Cleave Italian Master Drawings from the Princeton University Art Museum. Princeton, 2014, p. 40 n.10 (entry by Claire Van Cleave).
Mary Vaccaro "Correggio's Restless Invention" in Correggio and Parmigianino: Art in Parma during the Sixteenth Century (exh. cat. Rome, Scuderie del Quirinale). Ed. by David Ekserdjian, milan, 2015, p. 40, fig. 3 (detail).
David Ekserdjian Correggio and Parmigianino: Art in Parma during the Sixteenth Century Exh. cat. Rome, Scuderie del Quirinale. Milan, 2016, pp. 198-99, no. 29.
Nadine Orenstein, Jeff L. Rosenheim "A Centennial Album: Drawings, Prints and Photographs." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin. LXXIV, no. 3, Winter 2017, p. 18, ill.
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