Camera di San Paolo

Museum Emilia, Italy

The San Paolo room is truly one of a kind. Masterfully frescoed by Correggio, it is also called the room of the Abbess as it was her representative room.

Of the ancient monastery of the Benedictine nuns, which was rebuilt at the end of the 15th century, two rooms can now be visited. The two adjoining rooms are one by Alessandro Araldi who worked there in 1514, the other by Correggio who completed it in 1519. The Chamber of the Abbess Giovanna, by Correggio, introduces a completely humanistic pictorial language to Parma. By painting a berceau with intertwining plants, Correggio undoes the creases of the original late Gothic umbrella vault. The architectural space is therefore canceled by the painted space as the philosophical dictates of the Neoplatonic culture suggested to the author. A short visit to this work is really worth it.