Palazzo della Pilotta: Galleria Nazionale
Like many Italian cities, Parma became a great center of the Renaissance under the stewardship of one family, the Farneses, whose members included popes, cardinals, and the dukes of Parma. They began their fortresslike Palazzo della Pilotta in the 1580s and remained there until the last heiress, Elisabetta, married King Philip of Spain and decamped for Madrid in 1714. The Hapsburg princess Marie-Louise (1791–1847), second wife of Napoleon and great niece of France’s Marie-Antoinette, was awarded the duchy a century later, and she made it her business to gather art treasures from the city in the palace the Farnese’s had left empty; she also collected works from villas and churches throughout Italy, confiscated when her husband marched down the peninsula. Badly damaged by Allied bombs in World War II, the restored palace now houses the Galleria Nazionale. It’s not too surprising that the collection with connections to the Vienna-born duchess includes such northern artists as Hans Holbein, Brueghel, and Van Dyck, though Parma artists steal the show. Corregio’s “Madonna della Scodella” (with a bowl) portrays Joseph as an elderly, caring man and the Madonna as a young woman looking adoringly at her infant son; “St. Jerome with the Madonna and Child” also represents age, youth, and love—a gentle ode to tenderness. Napoleon supposedly wanted to cart these delightful canvases off to the Louvre, but Marie-Louise insisted they remain in Parma. Despite its name, Parmigianino’s alluring “Turkish Slave” is clearly the portrait of a well-kept young woman, dressed in gold threaded finery, and everything about her—turban, cheeks, eyes, breasts—is beautifully rounded. “La Scapigliata” (aka the “Female Head”) is one of the most celebrated works by the Italian master of the Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci; allegedly the artist presented it to a young man from Parma who modeled his hands for the “Last Supper.” The palace’s other treasure is the Teatro Farnese, a wooden theater the Farneses had built along the lines of Palladio’s theater at Vicenza to impress the Medicis. It’s been used only nine times, including an inaugural event in 1639 when the section in front of the stage was flooded for mock naval battles.
Like many Italian cities, Parma became a great center of the Renaissance under the stewardship of one family, the Farneses, whose members included popes, cardinals, and the dukes of Parma. They began their fortresslike Palazzo della Pilotta in the 1580s and remained there until the last heiress, Elisabetta, married King Philip of Spain and decamped for Madrid in 1714. The Hapsburg princess Marie-Louise (1791–1847), second wife of Napoleon and great niece of France’s Marie-Antoinette, was awarded the duchy a century later, and she made it her business to gather art treasures from the city in the palace the Farnese’s had left empty; she also collected works from villas and churches throughout Italy, confiscated when her husband marched down the peninsula. Badly damaged by Allied bombs in World War II, the restored palace now houses the Galleria Nazionale. It’s not too surprising that the collection with connections to the Vienna-born duchess includes such northern artists as Hans Holbein, Brueghel, and Van Dyck, though Parma artists steal the show. Corregio’s “Madonna della Scodella” (with a bowl) portrays Joseph as an elderly, caring man and the Madonna as a young woman looking adoringly at her infant son; “St. Jerome with the Madonna and Child” also represents age, youth, and love—a gentle ode to tenderness. Napoleon supposedly wanted to cart these delightful canvases off to the Louvre, but Marie-Louise insisted they remain in Parma. Despite its name, Parmigianino’s alluring “Turkish Slave” is clearly the portrait of a well-kept young woman, dressed in gold threaded finery, and everything about her—turban, cheeks, eyes, breasts—is beautifully rounded. “La Scapigliata” (aka the “Female Head”) is one of the most celebrated works by the Italian master of the Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci; allegedly the artist presented it to a young man from Parma who modeled his hands for the “Last Supper.” The palace’s other treasure is the Teatro Farnese, a wooden theater the Farneses had built along the lines of Palladio’s theater at Vicenza to impress the Medicis. It’s been used only nine times, including an inaugural event in 1639 when the section in front of the stage was flooded for mock naval battles.
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