Guide to the
MUSEUM il Correggio
________________________________________________________________
Funerary Lion
2
The new museum “Il Correggio”
The reclamation of Palace of princes has offered the opportunity for an intervention on the town museum in order to
adapt its structure, as well as to enlarge its spaces and most
of all its functions.
Already in 1995, when the first real museum of Correggio
opened, Alberto Ghidini chose to abandon the obsolete idea
of a “container-museum” and to promote the creation of an
institution, where the relationship between the works and
the territory could be represented. On the one hand, he tried
to link up and redevelop the cultural structure of Correggio
during the past centuries. On the other hand, he wanted to
strengthen the relationship between the town and its territory: he had an enlightened vision about the enjoyment of
cultural goods as a rediscovery of one’s own roots and of the
critical but not purely local sentiment of cultural empathy
with one’s own town and the community of Correggio.
The earthquakes in 1996 and 2000 damaged the structure of
the palace and steered the vocation of the museum towards
a different approach to the enjoyment of cultural goods, giving wider emphasis to the activity of didactic divulgation.
In harmony as the recent past but also as the demand of the
society, three main lines of activity have been outlined:
The exploitation of the local artistic historical and
cultural legacy through expositions and lectures.
The diffusion of different cultures (not only the local
one)
The didactics of cultural heritage, that means a resource for the participation in its preservation and
enjoyment.
The last one is maybe the most demanding challenge but
surely the most projected into the future. It is open to the
primary and to the secondary school, as well as to notscholastic activities. It is an important point of reference for
a new type of service and activities, whose potential is wide.
Thanks all its services, the museum is a real documentation
centre for the artistic history of Correggio until nowadays.
A new wide space on the same floor of the museum – where
the old library was – is taken up by the Gallery for temporary exhibitions. Thanks to the contiguity with the museum,
this is a strategically location in order to give cultural continuity to the permanent (museum) and the temporary exposition (gallery).
The spaces of the gallery will give the opportunity to “build”
an expositive course more articulated than in the past, in order to fit the demand of the evolving society. This brings to
the necessity of expositive events showing other cultures,
which are nowadays an integral part of our society.
Tapestry Room
4
SUMMARY
The seat: Palace of Princes
pag. 6
Plant museum
pag. 8
Archaeology and Local History Room
pag. 10
Renaissance Room
pag. 12
Tapestry Room
pag. 15
16th Century Gallery
pag. 17
17th Century Room
pag. 18
18th Century Room
pag. 20
19th Century Room
pag. 21
The seat: Palace of Princes
Palace of Princes is the most representative Renaissance building in Correggio. It was built at the turn of the 15th century
by order of Francesca Brandenburg, widow of the Earl
Borso Da Correggio and niece of Barbara Hohenzollern,
Marchesa of Mantua, and it was finished in 1508.
Its structure shows a clear influence of Ferrara’s culture. By
tradition, the design of the building has been attributed to
Biagio Rossetti. A sure evidence does not exist, but this theory is bolstered also by the studies on the architectonic characters and the plastic models.
The palace owes its name to the fact that it was the court of
Siro Da Correggio, who became Prince in 1616.
Since 1638, under Este’s rule, the palace had been seat of
their governor and during the 18th century it had been radically transformed. Seriously deteriorated, it was restored for
the first time in 1925-27 by the architect Guido Zucchini.
From 1967 to 2004, subsequent renovation works brought
to the complete recovery of Palace of Princes, which is today
the seat of town library “G. Einaudi” (ground floor), the
museum “Il Correggio” and the Gallery (first floor), as well
as the historical archives (second floor).
The entrance to the palace is through a precious
portal, which is adorned with grotesque.
In the architrave stands the
symbol of the counts of Correggio, between two griffins.
The rich portal is a masterpiece
of regional Renaissance.
Putti’s Room
6
As you enter, on the groundfloor, on your left, you can see
“Putti’s Room”, so called because of the seventeenth-century
fresco decoration, representing a group of cherub playing
together. Next to “Putti’s Room”, there is “Conference’s Room”
with fresco’s fragment dating back to the early 16th century
and reporting some important events in the history of the
Da Correggio’s family.
In the courtyard, there are two well-curbs of the beginning
of the 16th century and, under the arcades, there is a marmor
funerary lion, which probably dates back to 1rd – 2th century
DC.
Coming up the solemn stairs, you reach the main floor of
the Palace, with the most precious’s room: the “Fireplace’s
room”, characterized by a massive coffered ceiling, expresses
the figurative culture of the early 16th century. Under the
coffered ceiling, there is fresco frieze, clearly under Ferrara
influence, in which is represented Neptune with his trident
and some mermaids playing musical instruments.
On the second floor, there are the characteristic “Salone delle
Capriate” and the wide “Salone degli Archivi”: house of the ancient books and the historical town archives respectively.
The precious
Portal of Palace
of Princes
Plant museum
Ingresso = Entrance
Biglietteria, Ufficio e Bookshop = Ticket Office,
Office and Bookshop
Sala Archeologica = Archaelogy Room
Sala del Rinascimento = Renaissance Room
Galleria del Cinquecento = 16th Century Gallery
Sala degli Arazzi = Tapestries Room
Sala del Seicento = 17th Century Room
Sala del Settecento = 18th Century Room
Sala dell’Ottocento = 19th Century Room
Galleria dell’Ottocento= 19th Century Gallery
Galleria esposizioni = Exhibitions Gallery
Aula didattica = Didactics Room
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Exhibition route
The museum’s route consists in eight rooms, which take up
the western and northern wings of the Palace of Princes. The
most prestigious room, in the whole building, is certainly the
Fireplace’s Room (so called because of the stately fireplace on
the western wall), about which we have already written.
Archaeology and
Local History Room
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Talking about archaeology in the territory of Correggio is
not easy: it is like trying to make a mosaic with few and
badly matched tesseras.
As a matter of fact, the morphological transformations of
the territory raise serious obstacles against a complete
reconstruction of the most ancient phases of peopling in this
territory, where a thick blanket of alluvium warp covers
most relics. For this reason, most discoveries of relics, nearly
always only fragments, have been episodical and casual.
The most ancient evidences of primitive settlements in the
territory date back to the pre-Roman Age (6th-5th centuries
b. C.) with the graves of Madonna Quattro vie, in the
suburbs of Correggio.
During the Roman Age most of the territory seemed to be
covered by settlements (findings in Fosdondo, Fazzano
(loc. Imbreto), San Martino di Correggio, San Prospero,
Mandriolo, Lemizzone, Prato, and obviously in Correggio
town centre), whose number increased during the Middle
Age.
Pittore emiliano,
(sec.XVII)
pianta di Correggio
Head of Giove
Serapide
An ideal bridge between the
Roman Age and the Middle
Ages is represented by the very
important site of the Motte in
Canolo. Numerous relics and
most of all a fragment of a
marble little statue testify the
presence of Roman
settlements under the prominences of the ground. Moreover, it is quite sure the
existence here of Lupi family’s
castle, of which we have
documentations up to the 14th
century.
Other significant early medieval relics are from
Canolo, Prato and the town centre: they consist
in wide fragments of bowls, as well as pots and
lids that may all be dated between the 12th and
the 13th century and that represent important
evidences of the civilian and religious
settlements (castles, curtes, churches, parishes,
and hospitals) in the territory of Correggio.
The documentation about the evolution of the
territory and the town is entrusted also to
specific reconstructive cartographies.
Concerning the urban history of
Correggio great interest is hold by
the plan standing out in the room
and dedicated to the Prince Siro,
that may be dated between 1626
and 1630.
Renaissance Room
______________________________________________________________
This is the most prestigious room
in the palace, which gives
evidence of Correggio’s cultural
atmosphere during the
Renaissance.
Absolute masterpiece by Andrea
Ma nte g na (1431 -15 06) is
Il Redentore. The picture is signed
with initials and is dated 1493. On
the left side of the painting, we
can read the sentence Momordite
vos met ipsos ante effigem meam
(Tear with me in front of the
image of my pain).
Andrea
Mantegna,
Il
Redentore
Antonio
Allegri,
Il volto di
Cristo
Christ is holding a book in His hands, on which we can
read the inscription Ego sum: nolite timere (Luca 24, 36).
This artwork had been intended for private devotion. So,
it conveys deep and intense spirituality. Christ’s image is
drawn frontal on a black coloured background. The pale
beam of the aureole, whose rays create a cross-shaped
design, frames his face.
Mantegna’s classicism is particularly
recognizable in the vigour and the structure of Il Redentore neck and thorax, which
are
articulated in accordance with the rules of
the classical sculpture. Christ’s face, slightly
asymmetrical, bewilders the observer for
its psychological truth: He seems to withdraw into His sufferings, to which the
gloomy glance alludes.
This painting shows an unexpected opening of Mantegna
towards the theme of emotions. The absence of Il
Redentore typical symbols, as the blessing gesture or the
globe, has recently suggested changing the title into “Suffering
Christ” (De Marchi). The delightful panel representing
Madonna con Bambino e i Santi Rocco e Sebastiano by Geminiano
Benzoni (Ferrara, around 1489 – 1513) was intended for private devotion too, as suggested by the small dimensions of
the work. This express well Benzoni’s art, with its wonderful
range of colours, the gentle but intense persons’ expression
and the preciousness of the details.
Thanks to the activity of the “Foundation Il Correggio”, created
to appreciate Antonio Allegri’s figure and works of art
(1489/94-1534), three small but meaningful works, only
recently attributed to the Master, have arrived to his
hometown. They are two panels and a two-sided drawing.
In Il volto di Cristo, defined by Ekserdjian as a work of
problematic interest, the style reminds immediately to Correggio (painter). Everything in the small panel concurs to
that
illusion of both optical illusion and of matter, which
are Correggio’s distinguishing marks.
Touching for the sentiment shining through the Madonna’s
face is the panel La Pietà, now attributed to Correggio thanks
to David Alan Brown’s studies, where Eugenio Riccomini,
seeing the rich and tender paste and the light turning into
matter, finds Correggio’s secret signature.
Jug with Leonello
d’Este’s portrait
The two-sided drawing featuring a study of
a group of ephebes and apostoles for the
rail of Parma Cathedral (recto) and architectural studies (verso) is a work by
Correggio, too.
The excursus on the early Renaissance in
the city of Correggio is completed by the
exhibition of other particularly significant
works of art.
Antonio Allegri, detto il Correggio,
La pietà
Interesting are two wooden art
works of the second half of the
15th century: Altarolo portatile a edicola (portable aedicule, small altar),
by an artist from the Po Valley, and
Cristo deposto (depost Christ), by a
wood-carver from northern Italy.
Both works of art come from San
Francesco’s church. The wooden
carved and gilt small altar presents
on the external sides of the doors
the images of Saint Elisabeth of
Hungary and Saint Louis of France.
Four small statues, representing the Saints Jerome and Francis (upper order), Saint Peter Martyr and Saint Catherine
from Siena (lower order), are carved in the inside. This small
altar is very interesting but a primitive example of handicraft.
Its author is to be found in northern Italy.
Cristo deposto is maybe the only survivor of
a group of seven or eight sculptures on the
model of most Po Valley
“Lamentation of Christ”, a group of
statues composed by the Virgin Mary
and other saints around Christ’s dead body.
It shows some still pronounced gothic characters.
The thinness of the body, the strong stylization
as well as the connotation of some body parts
as the ribs reveal the strong influence from
the northern Italian and Austrian carving.
Geminiano Benzoni,
Madonna con
Bambino
Tapestry Room
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The museum keeps a collection of nine tapestries (five of
them belonging to the series “gardens”, three representing
“Hunting scenes” and one showing a “Popular Feast”), as well as
of some fragments and four borders.
Their colours, framework and landscape plan, are typical of
the Bruxelles manufacturing between the last quarter of the
16th century and the early 17th century. More the
typological analysis induces one to indicate Cornelius
Mattens as the weaver.
However, the origins of these tapestries are not certain yet.
Their weaving probably dates back to the last fifteen years of
the 16th century. They were probably part of a larger group
of tapestries brought to Correggio by the Earl Camillo, who
purchased them directly in Cornelius Mattens’s studio.
Five are the tapestries composing the
series “gardens”. They represent
spectacular perspective landscape
scenarios, and show typical nobiliary
parks of the late sixteenth century.
The composition has a great visual
impact: Geometric flowerbeds,
balustrades, pergolas, classical pavilions, statues, ancient ruins, and houses
are inserted in a greatly striking natural
context, where both natural and
artificial elements are skilfully
alternated (fountains, streams,
uncultivated stages, little animals).
Cornelius Mattens, Minerva e le
Muse (particolare), arazzo
Cornelius
Mattens,
Caccia
all’anitra,
arazzo
16
The little human figures moving in the
gardens wear ancient clothes. The
whole stresses the contrast between the
cultivated, artificial nature and the
untilled, wild one, following a typical
conception of gardening of that period.
Moreover, it represents the ideal set for mythological
episodes, which are quoted in each tapestry by the presence
of one figure or more on foreground, functioning as learned
quotation.
“Hunting”, which was the aristocratic pastimes par excellence
during the Middle as well as the Modern Age, is one of the
most common theme in tapestry art. The hunting scenes are
represented on the edge of the woods in the wide glades
characterized by brushwood vegetation that grows
abundantly. Many personages take part to the scenes (foot or
horse hunters, beaters, maidservants): They are shown into
action as well as during pleasant breaks.
The small “Popular feast” tapestry shows a rural Flemish
village, immersed in the luxuriant vegetation of the country,
where a popular and patron feast takes place.
Two of the four surviving borders arouse particularly
interest, which show the images of a basilisk
and of a sea monster respectively.
Cornelius
Mattens,
Festa
popolare,
arazzo
16th Century Gallery
__________________________________________________________
Francesco
Madonnina,
San Michele
che sconfigge
il demonio
After Correggio’s death, his hometown, as the
whole region, seems not to seize the immediate
suggestions of the Master’s style and works,
who died with no direct apprentice.
Nevertheless, that did not bring to a levelling
of culture, and the 16th century is still an
artistically bright season.
Evidence of this brightness are the artworks
here exhibited, beginning with La Madonna con
San Giovannino by Pomponio Allegri,
Correggio’s son (1521-1593).
The painting Ecce Homo, copy of the similar but smaller panel
(datable between 1540 and 1545), by Alessandro Bonvicino
named Moretto Da Brescia (1498-1554) lets guess the
existence of a contact with the circle of Brescia, possible
thanks to Veronica Gambara’s presence in Correggio.
The work San Giovanni evangelista e un angelo
by Fermo Ghisoni (1505-1575) may be
considered one of the author’s main works,
maybe his most significant, thanks to the
balance of the composition and its formal
characters.
Other artworks testify the artistic fervour in
Correggio during the late 16th century.
Among those is the panel by Francesco
Madonnina (active in 1578-1589), who was
the author of the large panel Madonna del
Rosario col Bambino, angeli e i santi Domenico e
Moretto da
Tommaso d’Aquino e i Santi Misteri, which
Brescia,
comes from San Giuseppe Calasanzio’s
Ecce Homo
church.
Other two works are by Madonnina:
S. Pietro Martire and San Michele che sconfigge
il demonio.
The Matrimonio mistico di Santa Caterina
d’Alessandria is to be attributed to Polidoro
da Lanciano, a Venetian painter
(1515 – 1565). The panel derives from a
composition by Tiziano known in various
versions.
Four portraits of the family Da
Correggio’s members complete the room:
the Cardinal Girolamo, the Earl Camillo,
and the Prince Giovanni Siro (as a young
man and as a mature man).
Pittore veneziano,
Matrimonio mistico di Santa
Caterina D’Alessandria
17th Century Gallery
__________________________________________________________________
Towards the end of the 16th , century a different artistic season opens in Correggio. A
important witness of Carraccio’s innovation
is the panel Madonna con Bambino in Gloria e i
santi Sebastiano, Girolamo, Giovanni Battista,
Paolo eremite e Rocco by Baldassarre Aloisi,
named Il Galanino (1577-1638). The work
shows the author’s signature and the date:
BALDASSAR ALOISI BONONIEN.
MDCVII. The panel was painted for the
“Confraternita di San Sebastiano” in
Correggio.
Another artwork of great impact, although
of uncertain and problematic attribution,
dates back to the middle of the century:
18
Mattia Preti,
San Bernardino
risana gli infermi
mostrando il nome
di Gesù
San Bernardino risana gli infermi mostrando il nome di Gesù, once
situated in the Augustoni Chapel in San Francesco church.
Ritratto di gentildonna is a valuable picture, on which the
author has gracefully represented the very rich dress,
studded with pearls and gems, the coiffure, embellished by a
drop-pearl jewel, and a carnation in the hair, symbol of the
promise of marriage.
The couple of small pictures
representing an Angelo annunciante
and a Madonna annunciata is part of
the Emilian arts and demonstrates
high formal quality as well as a very
refined use of the colours.
The tradition of the replication
from Correggio’s works distinguishes the 17th century too, as
already said. The copy Il riposo
durante la fuga in Egitto by Giovanni
Boulanger (1606-1660) is a fundamental point of reference of this
Giovanni Boulanger,
tradition.
Il riposo durante la fuga
During the seventeenth century,
in Egitto
thanks to the Dominican and
Priest schools, Correggio was a very relevant cultural centre.
From the municipal collections are two globes – the celestial
sphere and the earth – made in London in 1716 by the
cartographer Charles Price and dedicated to Isaac Newton.
They are precious document for the study of the
cartographic techniques as well as the geographical and
astronomic knowledge during the 17th century.
In the room are also exposed coins of Correggio’s mint
(1569-1630), formerly belonged to the the Lusuardi’s
Collection, wich is today the second of the world for
importance.
18th Century Room
__________________________________________________________________
During the 18th century the artistic
tendency in Correggio, as in the rest of the
region, aim to classicism, and brings the
sacred art for churches and the devotional
painting to an absolute primary role.
Girolamo Donnini (1681-1743), from
Correggio, is present in the exhibition
route with four artworks: La visitazione, its
sketch, Sant’Antonio da Padova genuflesso con il
Bambino e angeli and San Luigi Gonzaga.
Benedetto Dal Buono (1711-1775) was
Donnini’s apprentice.
He was much attached to his master, but less talented than
him. The not-lofty Ritratto di Antonio Allegri detto il Correggio
(Portrait of Antonio Allegri) shows the Master during the
execution of his Madonna della Scala, which is here oddly
presented as a painting but is a fresco actually; wich was
removed from its original location and placed in the Parma’s
Gallery.
Admiring the agreeable San Biagio by
Gaetano Callani (1736-1806), who was
a careful re-discoverer of Il Correggio,
we may find evident echoes of
Allegri’s painting.
Mauro Soderini,
Transito di San
Giuseppe
20
In the same area of interest are two other
artists: Giuseppe Carlo Pedretti (16971778) and Mauro Soderini (1704-after
1751). The first painter is present among
the exhibition with an oval, which is
probably fruit of his artistic maturity,
representing San Domenico invocato dai
cittadini fa cessare un’epidemia fra il bestiame
(attesting the diffusion of this cult in our
region too).
On the other hand, Transito di San Giuseppe
by Soderini is a painting of elevated quality
level, which gains a foreground role among
the artist’s few works.
Girolamo Donnini,
La visitazione
19th Century Room
__________________________________________________________
The 19th century, in Correggio too, is rich in emerging and
well-known personalities in the survey of the Italian
figurative culture.
Luigi Asioli (1817-1877) was a painter
famous for his historical themes, but he was
also versed in the portrayal. By him are
three very interesting works: San Girolamo
penitente, made for the Saint Sebastian
Confraternity, Ritratto di Bonifazio Asioli and
Autoritratto. They resume well all the artist’s
erudition, the language, and the techniques
of the Italian and European painting
tradition.
Luigi Asioli,
Ritratto di Bonifazio
Asioli
The room is completed by three sculptures of great
historical importance: the Busto del Correggio by Pompeo
Marchesi, the Bozzetto del monumento ad Antonio Allegri, a
precious plaster figure by Vincenzo Vela, and Francesco IV
by Giuseppe Pisani.
In the 19th Century Gallery, there are some lithographs of
Correggio’s painting and of Raffaello’s painting.
Antonio Allegri,
La madonna di
San Gerolamo
(lithograph)
22
Raffaello,
Leone X tra
i due cardinali
(lithograph)
Translation by Federica Beltrami and Melissa Pirondini
Correggio 2010
Museo “Il Correggio”
C.so Cavour, 7
Tel. 0522 693296
Fax: 0522 641105
E-mail: museo@comune.correggio.re.it
Visiting hours:
__________________________________________________________
Tuesday, Friday: 9.00-12.00
Monday, Wednesday, Thursday:
9.00-12.00 and 15.00-17.00
Saturday: 15.30-18.30
Sunday: 10.00-12.30 and 15.30-18.30
The access to the museum on weekdays is allowed only
previously calling number +390522.69.18.06
During exhibitions, opening hours is subject to extensions.