Published on: October 29, 2009

Francesca Storaro sent us her recent project for the Correggio’s dome at  Parma Cathedral. The focus of lighting is a fresco by Antonio Allegri titled The Assumption of the Virgin.

The project features wall mounted adjustable spotlights uplighting the dome.

More detailed description from the author:

____

“CORREGGIO’S  DOME” AT THE PARMA CATHEDRAL

The cathedral dome, created at the center of an ancient Romanesque structure is where Antonio Allegri, called CORREGGIO, conceived his fresco The Assumption of the Virgin.

The story of the Assumption has its source in the Transitus Mariae, and is included in the Legenda Aurea. The story takes place in the Valley of Jehoshaphat, the cemetery where the apostles had taken Mary’s casket. After being moved several times it was placed in a sepulcher, at which point Jesus appeared with a multitude of angels. The Archangel Gabriel uncovered the tomb, Mary’s soul was reunited with her body and the angels carried her to paradise.

The dome, which sits on an octagonal drum, is dedicated to the theme of the assumption of the Virgin. It depicts the Madonna sitting on clouds, surrounded by a decorative design that winds through three separate bands, separated by a cloud-filled sky. The fresco depicts an image of unbroken movement, which continues to spiral until it disappears into the light of paradise. Gradually the gigantic figures become lighter, less corporeal, until they merge into the light at the cap of the dome.

The open space around which the apostles are gathered thus becomes, in reality, the Virgin’s tomb. Thus from the earth, where she begins her ascent toward the air, she is welcomed into the heavenly assembly.

Correggio did not identify the apostles individually, but emphasized their emotions through their physical expressions. The apostles closest to the Madonna are dazzled by the splendor of her passage, which, like a powerful wind, almost knocks them to the ground.

The cathedral’s pendentives are not part of the dome itself, but the figures depicted there participate in the heavenly bliss. Each of the four corners is occupied by a patron saint of the city: Saint John the Baptist, holding a lamb; Saint Joseph, Our Lady’s husband; Saint Bernard degli Uberti, cardinal and bishop of Florence, and the bishop Saint Hilary.

Correggio painted the dome by creating a circular composition and a free surface without architectural interruptions. This was a completely new use of space, directed toward the infinite: form dissolves and space is abandoned to the magic of light. With Correggio light becomes almost ideological. He painted large areas with the buon fresco technique, using contrasting, but harmonious, background colors and softened the edges in tempera, blurring the reflections – the light. Thus his painting does not make decisive contrasts, neither with legs or clothing; rather, it evolves out of a soft, all-encompassing light that changes significantly throughout the planes of the painting – from silhouetted figures to those shrouded in distant clouds – using cool, bluish tones. In his depiction of the virgin, in The Annunciation, he uses light to create a celestial illumination.

THE CUPOLA AND THE CONCEPT OF LIGHT
According to Correggio’s painting principles discussed above, beginning with a neutral light that radiates from the pendentives below to the top of the dome, the light from the dome of the Parma Cathedral follows the principle of rising from earth to sky, from the material world to the realm of the spirit. The dome actually rests on an octagonal base that becomes a sphere. It starts in the shade, puts out roots in semidarkness and ends in total light. As a geometric form, the octagon is very close to the perfection of a circle. It represents a conscious desire to move toward the infinite and is symbolized by the color blue.

Thus the dome’s frescoes depict the concept of light with the use of a series of projections along the perimeter of the octagon that are directed toward the dome’s center. The color of the base changes to blue at the base of the hemisphere and slowly dissolves toward the vortex of the Assumption, until the color becomes a white light, symbolizing perfection.

______
Note of the editor:

Please note the copyright of these images is retained by ©ERCO and the photographer  Thomas Mayer.  Use of those images is subject to them being used for this article only. Publication of any image in any form or fashion must include a credit for both ©ERCO and the photographer.