Where is
What is and where is the The basilica of Santa Maria della Steccata
Santa Maria della Steccata is a church in downtown Parma of Renaissance forms and Baroque decoration, with a Greek cross plan. The arms closed by four large apses, and between them rise four chapels. According to Vasari, the design of the church was made to the design and order of Bramante: indeed, it recalls his design for St. Peter's in Rome. On the whole it looks very elegant, and invites you to enter.
Why it is special: play of light from the ground to the dome
The 'interior is striking for the light that ideally divides the space into vertical sections. In fact, the brightness is muted in the middle bays, becomes more diffuse in the apse, becomes dazzling in the dome, and makes the gold covering the arches and barrel vaults shine.
Not to be missed: the virgins of Parmigianino
Parmigianino produced perhaps his most fascinating work here in this church, in the sub-arch in front of the apse: the wise virgins and the foolish virgins. His women, wonderfully soft, sinuous and elegant, wrapped in intricate draperies, more pagan goddesses than Christian virgins, are perfectly fitted into the curved surface of the arch, showing the painter's extraordinary ability to deal with perspective. All around, a triumph of gold, monochrome statues and grotesques.
Fun facts: the artists at work in the basilica and Parmigianino's headaches.
The interior of the church is covered with frescoes that were all supposed to be by Parmigianino, but instead we find other artists: Michelangelo Anselmi (he did the Coronation of the Virgin to a design by Giulio Romano and the Adoration of the Magi to sketches by Parmigianino), and Parmigianino's own father, who was asked to imitate his son's style. It happened that Parmigianino, obsessively accurate in every detail, lingered in the work, and after seven years of waiting, the patrons ordered him to return part of the agreed sum for default and taking legal action had him jailed for nearly two months.
A bit of history: what does "della Steccata" mean?
The name of the church has a curious origin: where it currently stands there was a venerated image of Our Lady of Milk that attracted such a large number of prayerful people that the area had to be protected by a fence. For that very reason the Virgin began to be invoked under the name Madonna della steccata. It was therefore decided to erect a grandiose shrine there, entrusting the task to the architects Bernardino and Giovan Francesco Zaccagni. The church was built between 1521 and 1539, while the dome was built between 1526 and 1527 by Antonio da Sangallo Il Giovane; Parmigianino worked on it between 1530 and 1539.
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