4 THE WORKS OF
There are doubts also of the time of his death;
but it appears certain that he died the ,h March
1534, at the age of 40 years. Some say that he
was very poor, and of low extraction; others
make him rich and of noble family, and that he
left a good inheritance to his son Pompey; but
in neither the one or the other accounts have ever
appeared any documents. I believe equally false
the two extremes, and that he was rich in pro-
poflion to the country in which he lived, and
the little money in circulation at that time, as one
might infer from the kind of money with which
we know that they paid him for his works. The
authors who have written his life, have compared
him with the painters who lived in great courts
and rich cities, such as Rome, Venice, and Flo-
rence ; and have had reason to lament the fate os
Correggio, considering his great merit. That
however does not prove that he was not possessed
of something sufficient to live in philosophical
felicity, contenting himsels with a simple life,
equal with that of his fellow-citizens ; aspiring to
be better but not richer than them. That which
is certain, is, that in his paintings one does not see
any sign of that economy, or avarice, which is
observable in poor painters, or those who wish
for riches ; because his works are painted on good
wood, on fine canvas, or on copper, and often
re-touched with accuracy and study. The co-
lours which he used are of the most chosen and
difficult to practice. He employed with profu-
sion in the drapery, ssesh, and fields, the ultra-
marine, and strongly impasted the whole; a thing