Camera di San Paolo

The Camera di San Paolo is a small square chamber inside the former convent of San Paolo, painted by Correggio in 1519 as the private dining room of the abbess Giovanna da Piacenza. The vaulted ceiling is a single illusionistic pergola — sixteen oval openings ringed with vine leaves, through which putti lean to peer down at the visitor.

It is one of Correggio's most charming works and, because the room is small and rarely full, easily one of the most rewarding 20-minute stops in Parma. Tickets are sold at the entrance to the cloister; combined visits with the adjacent Camera di Aracne are sometimes possible.

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A story
The abbess Giovanna da Piacenza commissioned the room in 1519 as her private dining hall, and Correggio painted the vault as a pergola of vine leaves through which sixteen oval putti emerge, holding hunting trophies and musical instruments. The iconography is unusually pagan for a convent — a Diana over the fireplace — and the room was sealed off after Giovanna's death; it was rediscovered only in the 18th century.