Correggio (1489-1534) decorated the Room of the Abbess (or Room of Saint Paul) in the former Monastery of Saint Paul in Parma, likely in 1519. He achieved such surprising and innovative results, that to this day the space bears testimony to the artistic maturity of the great Renaissance painter.
Ironically, the room was kept a secret for a long time after the death of the woman who had ordered its paintings: the superior of the convent, noblewoman Giovanna Piacenza, who was in touch with the most important figures in her time’s cultural world – “a great lady in a monastic habit, who loved receptions and long conversations with cultured humanists”, to describe her with Gustaw Herling’s words (translated from “Le perle di Vermeer”, Fazi, Rome 1997).
