ON BOOKS OF REFERENCE.

The first biographer of Correggio was Vasari, in whose "Lives of the
Painters, Sculptors, and Architects" is included a brief account of
this painter. The student should read this work in the last edition
annotated by E. H. and E. W. Blashfield and A. A. Hopkins. Passing
over the studies of the intervening critics, Julius Meyer's biography
may be mentioned next, as an authoritative work, practically alone in
the field for some twenty-five years. This was translated from the
German by M. C. Heaton, and published in London in 1876. Finally, the
recent biography by Signor Corrado Ricci (translated from the Italian
by Florence Simmonds, and published in 1896) may be considered almost
definitive. It is issued in a single large volume, profusely
illustrated. The author is the director of the galleries of Parma, and
has had every opportunity for the study of Correggio's works and the
examination of documents bearing upon his life.

General handbooks of Italian art giving sketches of Correggio's life
and work are Kugler's "Handbook of the Italian Schools," revised by A.
H. Layard, and Mrs. Jameson's "Early Italian Painters," revised by
Estelle M. Hurll.

For a critical estimate of the art of Correggio a chapter in
Burckhardt's "Cicerone" is interesting reading, but the book is out of
print and available only in large libraries. In "Italian Cities," by
E. H. and E. W. Blashfield, a delightful chapter on Parma describes
Correggio's works and analyzes his art methods. Morelli's "Italian
Painters" contains in various places some exceedingly important
contributions to the criticism of Correggio's works. The author's
repudiation of the authenticity of the Reading Magdalen of the Dresden
Gallery has been accepted by all subsequent writers.

Comments on Correggio are found in Symonds's volume on "The Fine Arts"
in the series "The Renaissance in Italy," and are also scattered
through the pages of Ruskin's "Modern Painters" and Hazlitt's "Essays
on the Fine Arts." The volume on Correggio in the series "Great
Masters in Painting and Sculpture" is valuable chiefly for a complete
list of Correggio's works. The text is based on Ricci.[3]

[Footnote 3: As this book goes to press Bernard Berenson's "The Study
and Criticism of Italian Art" makes its appearance. A portion of it is
devoted to the study of Correggio.]

III. HISTORICAL DIRECTORY OF THE PICTURES OF THIS COLLECTION.

_Portrait frontispiece._ From a p