The Madonna of the Stairs (Madonna della Scala) is a fresco fragment (196 by 141 cm) by the Italian Renaissance artist Correggio, dating to ca.1522–23 and now in the Galleria Nazionale di Parma. [1]
The Madonna of the Stairs (Madonna della Scala) is a fresco fragment (196 by 141 cm) by the Italian Renaissance artist Correggio, dating to ca.1522–23 and now in the Galleria Nazionale di Parma. [1]
It was originally part of a fresco on the internal facade of the east gate of Parma, known as the San Michele gate and the start of the route to Reggio Emilia. [2] It was seen there and praised by Vasari. [3] When the walls were upgraded pope Paul III in 1555, the gatehouse was demolished and the fresco was detached from the wall and moved to the neighbouring oratory of Santa Maria della Scala, named since it could only be accessed by one staircase.
The Danish ambassador to Britain Jens Wolff [4] visited the oratory in 1785 and mentioned "the absurd effect provoked by the zeal of some ignorant fanatic who in the church of Madonna della Scala nailed a silver crown onto the Virgin painted by Correggio and thus disfigured an incomparable work by an act of the grossest barbarity". [5] Germaine de Staël, in her 1807 novel Corinne, also described the fresco as "perhaps the only painting which knows how to give to lowered eyes a raised and penetrating expression as if they were raised to heaven. The veil falling across her gaze takes nothing away from the feeling or thought, but makes them more enchanted; gives them a heavenly mystery. The painting has almost come off the wall and you can see the colour tremble as if a breath could make it fall". [5]
When the oratory was demolished on 4 December 1812 the fresco was moved to its present home in the Galleria Nazionale di Parma. It was restored in 1948, removing it from its original support and transferring it to canvas. Another intervention in 1968 removed arbitrary additions to the work. [6]
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The Madonna of the Basket or the Madonna della Cesta is a painting of c. 1524 by Antonio da Correggio in the National Gallery, London. While it is a Mannerist painting of the Virgin Mary and the Baby Jesus, Correggio included naturalist touches in his composition, like the sewing basket that gives the painting its name.
Madonna della Scodella is an oil painting on panel by Antonio da Correggio, dated from 1528 to about 1530 and preserved at the Galleria nazionale di Parma.
The Albinea Madonna or Madonna of Albinea is a lost painting by the Italian Renaissance painter Correggio. The best surviving copy is a 16th-century one by Antonio Leto, from the church of San Rocco in Reggio Emilia and now in the Galleria Nazionale di Parma.
The San Sebastiano Madonna is an oil-on-canvas painting by the Italian Renaissance master Correggio, dating to around 1524 and now in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden. It measures 265 by 161 cm.
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Madonna and Child with Saint George is an oil on panel painting by Correggio dating to around 1530 and now in the Gemäldegalerie in Dresden.
The Annunciation is a 157 by 315 cm fresco fragment by Correggio, dating to around 1524-1525 and now in the Galleria nazionale di Parma.
The Lamentation of Christ is an oil on canvas painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Correggio, dating from around 1524 and housed in the Galleria Nazionale of Parma, Italy.
Holy Family with the Infant Saint John the Baptist is a painting by Parmigianino, executed c. 1528. It was in the Palazzo Farnese in Rome until 1662, when it moved to Parma. There it hung in the Palazzo del Giardino and later in the Galleria Ducale - the 'Descrizione' of the latter in 1725 called it one of the finest works on display there. It and the rest of the Farnese collection were later moved to Naples and the work was exhibited for a few years in the Palazzo Reale before moving to its present home in the National Museum of Capodimonte. Two early copies remain in the Galleria Nazionale and Palazzo Comunale in Parma.
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