Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
the process of cleaning it), and embellished with three rows of
loggie
and flanked
by a graceful campanile, was built in the 12th century; it's one of the great
achievements of Italian Romanesque architecture. Once inside, all eyes are lifted
to celestial realms, as every inch of the nave walls and ceilings is slathered in mid-
16th-century frescoes. They culminate in Correggio's great masterpiece, his dra-
matic
Assumption of the Virgin,
swirling up inside the octagonal cupola. The
Virgin and her entourage of
putti
seem to be floating right through the roof into
a golden heaven. Correggio captured them in what seems to be three-dimensional
depth—long before this technique became prominent during the baroque period.
Even before Correggio added his crowning embellishment, between 1522 and
1534, the Duomo shone with another masterpiece—a bas-relief of
The Deposition
by the 12th-century sculptor Antelami. Look for it in the right transept.
In front of the Duomo stands the pink-and-white marble octagon of the 1196
Battistero (Baptistery)
(Piazza del Duomo;
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0521-235886;
€
4; daily
9am-12:30pm and 3-6:45pm),
a tribute to the work of Benedetto Antelami, one
of the most important sculptors of the Italian Romanesque. His friezes of allegor-
ical animals encircle the base of the structure, which rises in five graceful tiers.
Inside is his famous 14-statue cycle depicting the 12 months as well as winter and
spring, now stuck way up in the lower colonnade above the tall niches that once
held them. Those niches and the ceiling are covered in 13th-century frescoes (by
an unknown artist) that portray the lives of the apostles, Jesus, and other biblical
figures in a stunning display of visual storytelling and color.
Behind the baroque facade of
San Giovanni Evangelista
(Piazzale San
Giovanni, just behind the Duomo;
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0521-235511; daily 6:30am-noon and
3:30-8pm)
are works by the two masters of Parma, Correggio and Il
Parmigianino. Il Parmigianino frescoed the first two chapels on the left aisle, as
well as the fourth one. Drop
55
1 in the box at the end of the left aisle to light up,
in sequence, Correggio's fresco of
Saint John the Evangelist
writing down his vision
(accompanied by his iconic eagle, preening its feathers) in the lunette above the
sacristy door in the left transept, followed by the artist's
Transfiguration of St. John
in the dome, infused with golden light and widely considered to be one of the
great achievements of the High Renaissance. (After that light snaps off, the apse
fresco of the
Incarnation of the Virgin
lights up, if for no other reason than to show
us how much better an artist Correggio was than the hack who slapped that one
on the walls.) Correggio also did the narrow frieze surrounding the nave of
prophets, sibyls,
putti,
and pagan altars. Off the cloisters in the adjoining
monastery (entrance just left of the church doors) is a
biblioteca
(library) frescoed
with grotesques, maps, and battle scenes.
€
A Hidden Fresco
For an added treat, exit the Camera di San Paolo gate and take two rights to get
onto Borgo Giordani, which runs along the back side of the convent's garden. Enter
those gardens to peek through the window of the hutlike Cella di Santa Caterina,
named for its marvelous Araldi fresco of
The Mystical Marriage of St. Catherine.
