Madonna della Scodella

This is Correggio’s penultimate great altarpiece, painted for the church of San Sepolcro. The frame was made by Marcantonio Zucchi to Correggio’s own design.

The flight of angels, clinging to the clouds, which so closely resembles the solutions adopted in the dome of the Cathedral of Parma and in The Night, is contrasted by the harmonious and static connection between the diagonal poses of the figures, creating a continuity that is reminiscent of the Madonna with Saint Jerome. The influence of Leonardo can be seen in the smile and attitude of the Virgin, and that of Raphael in the brilliant tints of the violets, the whites, and the orange-yellows.