Mirola and Bertoia in the Palazzo del Giardino, Parma

Abstract

The frescoed rooms of the Sala di Ariosto and Sala del Bacio in the Palazzo del Giardino, Parma, have been attributed to the Parmesan artist Jacopo Bertoia. Contemporary documents and seventeenth-century guides suggest, however, that the little-known Bolognese artist Girolamo Mirola was responsible for those rooms. In addition, comparisons with Bertoia's documented frescoes in Rome and Caprarola and his accepted drawings confirm this new attribution. The authors conclude that Mirola, not Bertoia, designed the rooms, Mirola painted the entire Sala di Ariosto in ca. 1563, and both artists painted in the Sala del Bacio.

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Notes on contributors

Diane De Grazia

Curator of Italian Drawings at the National Gallery of Art, Diane De Grazia was responsible for the exhibitions and catalogues of Prints and Related Drawings by the Carracci Family (2979, rev. Italian ed. 1984) and Correggio and His Legacy (1984). Currently she is writing a monograph on Bertoia. [National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. 20565]

Bert W. Meijer

Bert Meijer's research has concentrated on Northern artists in Italy. He is author of the exhibition catalogues Omaggio a Tiziano (1976) and Rembrandt nel seicento toscano (1983), and of I grandi disegni italiani del Teylers Museum di Haarlem (1985). He is now editing the forthcoming Repertory of Dutch and Flemish Paintings in Italian Public Collections. [Istituto Universitario Olandese di Storia dell'Arte, viale Torricelli 5, Florence 50125, Italy]