Luogo - Monument
Camera di San Paolo
Where
Via Macedonio Melloni, 3/a, Colorno (Parma)
The journey around the museum of the “Camera of San Paolo” you come
across the private apartment of the Abbess, Giovanna da Piacenza,
located in the ancient Benedictine monastery of St. Paul, which at the
beginning of the sixteenth century was one of the most important
cultural centers of the city. After passing through a few areas, one
arrives at the almost perfect symmetrical room whose ceiling was painted
in 1514 by Alessandro Parma using rich ornamentation and grotesque
painted candelabras, in which are included both sacred scenes and
profane images. The room which was painted by Antonio Allegri Correggio
in 1519, was done in the Renaissance style. It was painted using
illusionistic decorations and young vine shoots which open onto fake
ovals with cherubs, whilst the lower part of the room is completed with
fake niches in monochrome containing mythological figures. The fireplace
holds a representation of Diana, an obvious reference to the abbess
Giovanna da Piacenza, who commissioned the work, and whose heraldic
emblem is at the center of the ceiling.