Room 6

Watch how a face emerges from shadow, then compare the edge of a robe with the background around it. The painters in this room found different ways to make figures seem present through light. Francesco Francia favoured clear illumination and polished surfaces. Correggio softened outlines and let deep shadows meet warm colour. Parmigianino learned from Correggio before studying the work of Raphael and Michelangelo in Rome. In his Madonna and Child with Saints, graceful, elongated bodies carry that experiment further. There is no need to name a style before looking. Start with the edges, then notice how the light changes your sense of a figure’s weight and distance.