Correggio purchase masterstroke for NGV

THE Renaissance began in Florence, but its culmination in what we call the High Renaissance unfolded in Rome from about 1480 to 1527, dominated by the great figures of Michelangelo and Raphael.

Leonardo, who had initiated the new phase, carried it to the north of Italy, where Bellini's pupils Giorgione and Titian became the dominant figures of the Venetian school, and Correggio the leading artist of the North Italian school.

Both the Venetian and North Italian painters had effectively assimilated the Renaissance through the influence of the great sculptor Donatello and the learned painter Andrea Mantegna. Leonardo's role was in part to introduce a sculpturally-minded tradition to the painterly qualities of sfumato, which tended to eliminate the reliance on line, and of chiaroscuro, which is composition in areas of light and dark.

This is what Vasari meant when he said that Correggio was the first to introduce the maniera moderna, by which he meant High Renaissance style, to the north of Italy. He still had some reservations about Correggio's draughtsmanship, but by the end of the 16th century, the latter had become one of the big four of the modern canon, alongside Raphael, Michelangelo and Titian.

He has generally been admired since, especially for the subtlety of his colour, particularly in flesh, and the gentle, poetic, sometimes erotic qualities of his subjects.

Correggio's Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist is a fine early work, from the years before the painter moved to Parma and undertook the celebrated frescos that became a model for later Baroque painters.

It is a great achievement for the National Gallery of Victoria to have acquired a significant work by such an important artist of the High Renaissance. And the price, though high, reminds us that Old Masters are still bargains compared to the inflated prices of more recent work.