In 1948 the same Sanvitale, its inhabitants for over five centuries, handed over the Rocca with the family furnishings to the Municipality, which subsequently converted it into a museum.
The rooms of the Rocca di Fontanellato
The series of the most interesting rooms of the Sanvitale apartment of the Rocca di Fontanellato begins with the Armory adorned with specimens from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century; followed by the adjoining room of Maria Luigia‘s memorabilia, where the famous hand with a flower on the wrist made by Canova in 1820 is exhibited; the reception room, decorated with a seventeenth-century frieze and furnished with sumptuous baroque furniture, where a painted spinet and a seventeenth-century ebony cabinet are proudly displayed, and the bridal chamber, with furniture coming from the Madonna sanctuary.
The actual museum route occupies the ground floor, with access from the courtyard: noteworthy in the first room are the Sanvitale portraits attributed to Molinaretto and Baldrighi, and in the recently restored grotesque room, paintings by Carlo Francesco Nuvolone, Boselli, Ilario Spolverini, Carlo Preda. The nearby room with the children’s theater of Maria Luigia is called “the room of the balancing women” for the monochrome frieze attributed to a student of Cesare Cesariano, probable author of the decoration of the nearby room of the cherubs. The visit itinerary concludes with the so-called “Camera Ottica,” named after the nineteenth-century instrument that reflects the town square through a singular play of mirrors, and the oratory, built in 1688 in the ancient keep.
The Rocca Sanvitale Museum, Fontanellato
The museum houses a toy theater of considerable historical importance, belonging to Albertina di Montenovo, daughter of Maria Luigia of Austria, Duchess of Parma and Piacenza. Dated between 1820 and 1825, the theater consists of a wooden box that serves as a base and contains it once disassembled. It is 107 cm high and 91 cm deep. The family crest is depicted on the pediment. The canvas curtain, with a winding mechanism at the top, depicts a garden with a lake and in the center a small island with a classical temple.
The theater is accompanied by 24 puppets, 18 cm high. One of these is only 11 cm high and was presumably used to favor the perspective illusion. The puppets – among which we find Harlequin, Brighella, the Doctor, the King, the Queen, servants and court nobles – are made of wood and plaster. The costumes and accessories are original. Accompanying the theater are 6 cardboard backdrops, with various layers of wings depicting different environments: woods, gardens, palace interiors and city exteriors. Puppets, curtain, backdrops, and pediment are painted with tempera. Source: MIBACT
Information about the Rocca Sanvitale Museum
Piazza Matteotti, 1
43012 Fontanellato (Parma)
Tel. 0521823220
Email: info@fontanellato.org
Website: https://www.fontanellato.org
