An exhibition in Correggio celebrates the 500th anniversary of the Abbess Chamber, Correggio's masterpiece

In 1518 the great Antonio Allegri, better known as il Correggio (Correggio, c. 1489 - 1534), began one of his most famous and celebrated undertakings: the fresco decoration of the Camera della Badessa (or Camera di San Paolo) in Parma, one of his best-known achievements and one of the masterpieces of perspective illusionism of the sixteenth century. Exactly five hundred years after the start of that capital work for art history, the city of Correggio pays tribute to its illustrious son with an exhibition at the Museo Civico “Il Correggio” that, from October 14 to December 9, 2018, “brings” the Camera della Badessa to the birthplace of the great painter. It is the exhibition Camera di San Paolo. Art & Experience, promoted in collaboration with Fondazione Il Correggio and Associazione Amici del Correggio and with the support of the Emilia Romagna Region.

The exhibition consists of three moments: in the first room the public will be able to admire historical reproductions of the Abbess’s Chamber and its details, in the second a multimedia projection will reconstruct the Chamber in life size, and in the third it will be possible to see works by local contemporary artists who were inspired by Correggio’s masterpiece.

“The Association of Friends of Correggio and the Museum,” says Giuseppe Adani, a Correggio scholar, "has set up an extensive exhibition celebrating the Fifth Centenary of the Camera di San Paolo, the gem frescoed by Allegri in 1518 in Parma for the highly cultured Abbess Giovanna Baroni, regent of the important Benedictine women’s monastery that thus became the sapiential heart of the city. While now in Parma the initiatives remain off the achievements in Correggio find their genesis in Renza Bolognesi’s beautiful publication Correggio and the Camera di San Paolo. Svelamenti inediti (Silvana, 2018) addressed with careful didactics to all kinds of readers, where the naturalistic splendor and lovable mysteries of the Camera are explained with simplicity and precision, along with their formal values. The Contextual Exhibition makes use of three spacious and bright museum spaces: the Great Gallery, enriched by Renza Bolognesi with Allegrian festoons, where the whole iconographic and art-historical part takes place; the Adumbrated Room where the projective reconstruction of the Chamber takes place through a very recent photostatic sampling system; and finally the Small Gallery that exhibits, with surprise, the tributes and interpretations of living painters and sculptors from the Correggio area, which make the conclusion of the visiting itinerary curious and as enjoyable as possible. By Dec. 9, all art enthusiasts can learn about Correggio, its monuments and the very interesting museum, with free admission."

In fact, the exhibition can be visited freely every day: Saturdays from 3:30 to 6:30 pm, Sundays from 10 am to 12:30 pm and 3:30 to 6:30 pm, and other days by appointment. For info you can call 0522 691806 or visit www.museoilcorreggio.org.

Pictured: the Abbess Chamber

An exhibition in Correggio celebrates the 500th anniversary of the Abbess Chamber, Correggio's masterpiece

Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.