Correggio and Parmigianino: Parma's two painters

Antonio Allegri was born around 1489 in Correggio, the town that gave him his name. His Parma decade produced three ceilings, each bolder than the last:

• 1519: the Camera di San Paolo. A private room for the abbess Giovanna da Piacenza, with a vault painted as a pergola and putti looking through oval openings.
• About 1520 to 1521: the dome of San Giovanni Evangelista. The Vision of Saint John: Christ descending in light, the apostles seated on clouds.
• 1522 to 1530: the dome of the Duomo. He signed the contract on November 3, 1522. The Assumption of the Virgin rises through a spiral of figures seen from directly below.

He went home to Correggio and died there on March 5, 1534. His domes, which paint the sky as if the ceiling were open, were studied for the next century and anticipate Baroque ceiling painting. The Galleria Nazionale holds his panels, including the Madonna di San Girolamo (1526 to 1528), bought for Parma in 1765, and the Madonna della Scodella.

Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola was born in Parma on January 11, 1503, into a family of painters. In 1515 his uncle received a commission for chapels in San Giovanni Evangelista, and the teenage Francesco completed the work. So around 1520 to 1522 he was painting in the side chapels while Correggio painted the dome overhead.

His career then moved fast:

• About 1523 to 1524: the Diana and Actaeon room in the Rocca Sanvitale at Fontanellato, his most complete surviving room.
• 1524: Rome, with the Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror, now in Vienna. The Sack of Rome in 1527 drove him to Bologna.
• By 1530: back in Parma. In 1531 he took the commission for the arch above the high altar of Santa Maria della Steccata, with the Wise and Foolish Virgins.
• 1534 to 1540: the Madonna with the Long Neck, now in the Uffizi in Florence.

The Steccata job went badly. By 1535 it was unfinished; he was jailed for two months for breach of contract, left for Casalmaggiore across the Po, and died there of fever on August 24, 1540, aged 37. The Galleria Nazionale holds his Turkish Slave (about 1533), returned to Parma from the Uffizi in 1928.

You will see both in San Giovanni within a few meters, which makes it the best place to learn the difference.

In San Giovanni, Parmigianino's frescoes are in the first chapels on the left of the nave: Saint Agatha with her executioner, Saints Stephen and Lawrence, and Saint Vitalis with his horse. Look up at the crossing for Correggio, then find his lunette of Saint John and the eagle over the sacristy door, at eye level.

• Camera di San Paolo: closed since August 31, 2026 for a €700,000 conservation project. The city expects to finish around spring 2027 and has not set a date. When it reopens, the single ticket is €8, or it is on the €15 civic six-museum pass.
• The Lamentation: Correggio's panel of about 1524 is in Dresden for the exhibition "Correggio. Movingly human" from September 19, 2026 to January 10, 2027.
• Galleria lighting works: the rooms partly closed for relighting from July 2 were due to finish on September 30, 2026.
• New show: Giorgio Gandini del Grano, a painter who worked in Correggio's wake, at the Pilotta from October 17, 2026 to January 17, 2027. The Pilotta had not said whether it costs extra.

Chronological order helps you see Correggio grow, and it fits the opening hours. Everything is within 1.5 km (0.9 miles). Do it Tuesday to Sunday, because the Galleria closes on Mondays.

1. 9 a.m., San Giovanni Evangelista (open 8:30 a.m. to noon and 3 to 8 p.m., free). Correggio's first dome and Parmigianino's chapels. 30 minutes.
2. 9:45 a.m., the Duomo, 240 m away (7:45 a.m. to 7:20 p.m., no lunch break, free). The Assumption. Stand under the crossing and give your eyes a minute; binoculars help. 30 minutes.
3. 10:45 a.m., Santa Maria della Steccata (free). Parmigianino's arch. We found no official hours; a 2024 directory gives 7:30 a.m. to noon and 3 to 6:30 p.m., so arrive before noon.
4. 11:30 a.m., Galleria Nazionale in the Pilotta (9 a.m. to 7 p.m., last entry 6 p.m.). The panels by both, on the €18 ticket, which also covers the Teatro Farnese.
5. Optional, afternoon: the Rocca Sanvitale at Fontanellato, €12, 40 minutes on bus line 23 from the station. Closed on Tuesdays outside April and May.

Our Correggio and Parmigianino walk maps the same stops with distances, and the one-day itinerary fits them around lunch.