File:Italian cities (1903) (14590022578).jpg

Identifier: italiancities01blas (find matches)
Title: Italian cities
Year: 1903 (1900s)
Authors: Blashfield, Edwin Howland, 1848-1936 Blashfield, Evangeline Wilbour, d. 1918
Subjects: Art -- Italy Cities and towns -- Italy Italy -- Description and travel
Publisher: New York : Scribner's
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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Text Appearing Before Image:
Acquaintance with Correg-gios pictures in the galleries of Europe preparesbut in small measure for what awaits one in thecathedral of Parma. There the ordering; of Correggios work is as follows:in the pendentives of the cupola are four seatedsaints with many youthful angels, the seated figuresenthroned upon clouds. Twelve colossal apostlesstand along an octagonal cornice behind a paintedbalustrade, looking upward at the Assumption of theVirgin. Painted candelabra rise at the angles ofthe cornice, and between them are many boy geniistanding, sitting, or reclining. Above them thewhole cupola is filled with clouds and a multitude offlying figures surrounding the Virgin, who is borneupward. Under the soffits of the arches to thecupola are painted figures of genii, six of which areby Correggio, the others by Mazzola-Bedoli. The above is the material distribution of the fres-coes. Considered generally, the result is the achieve* 272 PARMA DLOmO CORREGGIO ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN (FRAGMENT)
Text Appearing After Image:
PARMA ment of one of the few works which may be calledsublime. Technically considered, this Assumptionpresents the first triumphantly successful realizationof aerial, transparent fresco-color. For the firsttime also, save in the case of the same mastersfrescoes of San Giovanni, architectonics are disre-garded, and a whole cupola is shown as one undividedand realistic composition. The color is beyondcriticism; the arrangement, which in principle is, onthe contrary, distinctly open to criticism, is justifiedby its result. It is splendidly, dazzlingly successful;and yet not only the few to whom it is antipathetic,but the many who profoundly admire, may analyzeit and find in it certain germs of decadence. To begin with, it is confused, and in the painterspassion for realistic foreshortening he has frequentlysacrificed dignity, and has sometimes become franklyawkward. The monumental grandeur of Eaphaeland Michelangelo is completely absent, but itis replaced by another grandeur, which comes

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