Art Pursuits 2022 brochure

ITALY
PARMA & PIACENZA
Art, Architecture & Gastronomy in the Duchy of the Farnese Family
Camera della Badessa
From the Romans to the Romantics, the city of Parma has a rich cultural history. It is the setting for Stendhal’s novel The
Charterhouse of Parma and the birthplace of Verdi and Toscanini. It is renowned for its gastronomy and for its violets,
introduced by Duchess Maria Luigia of Austria, Napoleon’s second wife, for whom Parma Violet perfume was created. Parma
is no less rich in artistic treasures. It boasts a magnificent Romanesque cathedral and Baptistery, decorated by the great early
mediaeval sculptor Benedetto Antelami. In the early 16th-Century, Parma was home to Correggio and Parmigianino, two of
the most original painters of the Renaissance. Until the 20th-Century Correggio was arguably more famous than Leonardo da
Vinci; a visit to Parma helps to explain why, affording a unique opportunity to experience at first hand his ground breaking
ceiling paintings in the city’s convents and churches. From 1545-1731 Parma was ruled by the Farnese, the descendants of
Pope Paul III, who created the Duchy of Parma for his illegitimate son. The vast Farnese palace, the Pilotta, now home to the
city’s art collection, boasts an impressive late Renaissance theatre, the Teatro Farnese. The surrounding countryside offers
further delights. Among these is the 15th-Century castle of Torrechiara, nestling among pretty vineyards, with its dazzling
Camera d’Oro, a rare survival of Early Renaissance secular decoration, glorifying the owner’s love for his mistress; the castle of
Fontanellato, wittily frescoed in mannerist style by the young Parmigianino, and the 18th-Century villa of Colorno, known as
the Versailles of Parma, where Duchess Maria Luigia cultivated her violets. And no visit to Parma would be complete without
tasting some of the region’s gastronomic delights. On our last day will visit Piacenza, the former capital of the Farnese duchy
where bronze statues of Alessandro and Ranuccio Farnese stand outside the beautiful late-Gothic town hall.
24
To book call 01280 736 115 or visit artpursuits.com