La Vierge à saint François

This is the earliest large painting firmly given to Correggio, the picture that launched him. He signed the contract for it on 30 August 1514, in his hometown of Correggio in northern Italy, and because he was still young the deal was witnessed by his father and by his brother, who happened to be the guardian of the local Franciscan friary the altarpiece was made for. Saint Francis kneels before the enthroned Virgin, showing the stigmata, the wounds of Christ he was said to have received. Behind him stand Anthony of Padua, Catherine and John the Baptist. Correggio was in his twenties, still working in the stiffer manner of the older painters around Mantua and Ferrara, years before the soft, glowing style that would make his name.