The old biographer Vasari
made many efforts to procure a portrait, and concluded that "he never
took it himself, nor ever had it taken by others, seeing that he lived
much in retirement."

Our painter, as we have seen, was not a student of the face. Form and
expression did not greatly interest him. He busied himself chiefly
with problems of light and shade. This is perhaps the reason why he
never thought it worth while to paint his portrait. He was not a
traveller, and probably never visited any of the great art centres of
his time. So he made no friends among the contemporary painters who
would have been likely to make his portrait. In any case his busy life
left little time for any work for himself, and if he thought at all of
a portrait, he doubtless postponed it to some more convenient season.
Waiting for such a time, his career was brought suddenly to an end. He
died of fever in Correggio at the age of forty.

In the passing centuries one picture after another has been put
forward as a pretended portrait of Correggio. The painter's admirers
were always eager to believe that a real likeness had at last been
discovered. Though we cannot rely upon the genuineness of any of
these, some are very interesting.

Such an one is our frontispiece, from a painting in the Parma Gallery,
pointed out as Correggio's portrait. Whoever the original may have
been, the expression is certainly animated and intelligent. There is
much humor and kindliness in the face. The unknown artist should have
the credit for the gift of revealing the individual character of his
sitter.

Lacking an authentic portrait of the man Correggio, we have to content
ourselves with the short account of his character given by Vasari. "He
was a person," writes the biographer, "who held himself in but slight
esteem, nor could he ever persuade himself that he knew anything
satisfactorily respecting his art; perceiving its difficulties, he
could not give himself credit for approaching the perfection to which
he would so fain have seen it carried; he was a man who contented
himself with very little, and always lived in the manner of a good
Christian."

PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY OF PROPER NAMES AND FOREIGN WORDS

The Diacritical Marks given are those found in the latest edition of
Webster's International Dictionary.

EXPLANATION OF DIACRITICAL MARKS.

A Dash ([=]) above the vowel denotes the long sound, as in f[=a]te, [=e]ve,
t[=i]me, n[=o]te,