Correggio 500: Lucio Rossi's Photographs Bring San Giovanni's Dome Up Close

To mark the 500th anniversary of the completion of Correggio's frescoes in the Basilica of San Giovanni in Parma, the city has launched Correggio 500, a special project featuring a photographic exhibition by Lucio Rossi. Rossi's large-scale photographs translate the dome into a flat plane, allowing visitors to examine details invisible from the ground. The exhibition, titled "Il cielo per un istante in terra" (Heaven for a Moment on Earth), is held in the abbey's library and main hall, where two halves of the dome face each other alongside selected figures and details. The photographs reveal that Christ is not ascending but descending, as indicated by his robe billowing backward, and that the gesture of his hand is a call to John. The exhibition offers a unique opportunity to study Correggio's perspective and the 'disproportionate' bodies designed for a view from below, enhancing the experience of the original frescoes. The project runs in 2024, the quincentenary of the dome's completion.