Study for 'The Coronation of the Virgin', Lost Fresco in the Absis of San Giovanni Evangelista in Parma

Author: Albert Elen

In 1519-24 Correggio painted a large series of fresco decorations in the newly built church of San Giovanni Evangelista for the Benedictine monks of Parma.^[1] He first painted the decorations in the main dome (over the crossing), the choir vault and the semidome of the choir apse. However, most of the latter, the multi-figured Coronation of the Virgin, was lost as early as 1587 when the church was enlarged, and was immediately replaced by a copy in situ.^[2] Eight preparatory drawings of the central scene survived, among them the only composition study, the sheet that is now in Rotterdam.^[3] At the end of 1521 Correggio also received an order for the 60-metre frieze on the three walls of the nave, along with the pilasters and the pendentives of the main dome. The frieze frescoes must have been painted in the spring and summer of 1522. It is obvious from the stylistic differences that they were not executed by him but by assistants working to his designs. Several of the preparatory drawings for those decorations have survived, four of which are in Rotterdam. They are studies for some of the seated sibyls and prophets flanking the central scenes of sacrifice (I 288-291).^[4] Additionally, in 2022 a previously anonymous red chalk drawing in Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen was identified as a preliminary study for secondary figures in The Ascension of Christ fresco (I 429) in the main dome.

The preliminary drawings for the central scene of The Coronation of the Virgin (fig.) shows how the artist prepared the two main figures separately but as a coherent group, experimenting with their poses and interaction. The Rotterdam drawing is the only one to depict the two central figures. Its exploratory nature is best demonstrated by the adjustment of the red chalk contours of the figure of Christ, who was moved a little more to the left before the final decision was arrived at with the pen and brush in brown ink. Although most of the original fresco was lost when the church was enlarged and only a fragment of the central section remained,^[5] the entire scene is known from the exact copy made in 1587.^[6] A comparison reveals that Christ is wearing a cloak in the fresco, has let his left arm fall and is holding a sceptre. As in the drawing, the right arm is holding a crown above the Virgin’s head, with the dove of the Holy Ghost added above that. The angels on a cloud at their feet are arranged differently and are not based on the preliminary drawing. Only the figure of the Virgin, with her head tilted towards Christ and her arms crossed on her breast, is almost identical. Apart from that, the drawing differs from the rather static fresco in its dynamism and execution, in which the artist was still searching for the ideal form. The drawing also shows that he was taking the height of the scene in the dome vault into account, which would have forced the viewer to look upwards.

The watermark in this sheet (a flower with seven petals) looks very much like the one in a document dated 1523 in Milan. That agrees with the dating of the drawing to the years 1520-1522.