Patrimonio culturale dell'Emilia-Romagna

The important heritage of the National Gallery is housed in Palazzo della Pilotta, in rooms already used as a picture gallery in the 18th century. Founded by Filippo and Ferdinando of Bourbon, Dukes of Parma, the collection grew thanks to the purchase of further items by Marie Louise of Austria, second wife of Napoleon and Duchess of Parma. The exhibition comprises two sections: the first contains works of art from the Middle Ages to the 18th century, while the second presents the masterpieces of Correggio and Parmigianino.

Set out in the north and west wings of the building, the exhibition begins with some architectural fragments from the Po area, dated between the 11th and the 13th century; among them three capitals by Antelami from the ambon in the Cathedral. Next come the primitives, with board paintings by Simone dei Crocefissi, Paolo Veneziano, Spinello Aretino, Agnolo Gaddi, Fra Angelico, Giovanni di Paolo, Nicolò di Pietro Gerini and Bernardo Daddi.
In the Renaissance section are works by Agnolo and Bartolomeo degli Erri, Francesco Francia, Jacopo Loschi, Cristoforo Caselli, Garofalo, Cima da Conegliano, while local artists are represented by Filippo Michele, Pier Ilario Mazzola, Girolamo Mazzola Bedoli, Jacopo Bertoja and Alessandro Araldi. The 16th century is also represented by Dosso, Giulio Romano, Sebastiano del Piombo, Tintoretto, Palma the Younger, El Greco.
Among the most famous paintings in the Gallery are the Head of a girl by Leonardo, the Portrait of Erasmus of Rotterdam by Hans Holbein the Younger, and the series of works by Correggio: The Coronation of the Virgin and the Deposition, painted for San Giovanni in 1522 and 1524, the Madonna of Saint Jerome, of 1528, and the Madonna with a Bowl, of 1530, as well as the Turkish Slave by Parmigianino, from the collection of Leopoldo de Medici.
The section of artists from Emilia continues with Ludovico and Annibale Carracci, by whom there is a Self-portrait, and works by Spada, Schedoni, Lanfranco, Badalocchio, Guercino; among the Lombards are Giulio Cesare Procaccini, de Ferrari, del Cairo, Nuvolone, while Mor and Pourbous the Younger, who painted the Farnese portraits, complete the series of foreign artists along with Murillo and Van Dyck.
The series of paintings by Sebastiano Ricci introduces the 18th century, where Venetian painting is represented by Piazzetta, Tiepolo, Pittoni and Bellotto, and Emilian art by Giuseppe Maria Crespi, Felice Boselli, Cristoforo Munari. Portraits by Giuseppe Baldrighi and Pietro Melchiorre Ferrari are followed by the French style, represented by the Duke of Burgundy by Jean Marc Nattier and paintings by Zoffany and Robert.
The exhibition in the Gallery ends with a 19th century section comprising paintings by Appiani, Marchesi, Pasini, Carmignani and introduced by Giovan Battista Borghesi with the painting of the Duchess Marie Louise, taken from the statue by Canova which can be seen in the same section, where there are also two statues of the second century AD, found in Rome, in the Farnese Gardens.