St. Paul's Chamber

The monumental complex of San Paolo experienced its greatest splendor between the 15th and 16th centuries, during the regency of the abbesses Cecilia Bergonzi and Giovanna da Piacenza.

The current museum itinerary of the Chamber of San Paolo reconstructs the rooms of the private apartment of the abbess Giovanna da Piacenza, also crossing the room of the ancient refectory of the Monastery, later transformed into a chapel, in which a series of detached frescoes from the centuries are exhibited XV and XVI and a splendid seventeenth-century wooden choir. The next two communicating rooms are the work of one by Alessandro Araldi who worked on it in 1514, the other by Correggio who completed it in 1519. Also worth mentioning at the entrance to the route is a copy of the Last Supper (1516) made by Alessandro Araldi.

The room frescoed by Araldi offers a rich decoration of grotesques and painted candelabras, on the blue background of the vault, in which sacred scenes are inserted, such as those of the Old and New Testaments illustrated in circles and squares, and profane ones with cherubs, fantastic animals and golden stucco rosettes.

The Chamber of Abbess Giovanna, a work by Correggio, is considered one of the masterpieces of the mature Italian Renaissance. By painting a berceau with vegetal weaves, Correggio cancels the creases of the original late Gothic umbrella vault, creating the illusion of a pergola with vegetal shoots: the decoration evolves, from the center of the vault with the triple lunar coat of arms of the Abbess, dividing itself into sixteen segments in which fake ovals open from which cherubs appear in a playful attitude, some evocative of the theme of hunting. At the base of each segment there are sixteen monochrome lunettes with mythological characters illuminated from below in such a way as to appear almost like bas-reliefs. Diana is represented on the fireplace, symbolizing the Abbess herself, driving the chariot, about to leave for a hunting trip.