Right Wing
The Baglione Room
The Baglione Room, sometimes known as the room ‘of the grotesques’, takes its name from the fact that it was frescoed by Cesare Baglione (16th cent.), a painter from Cremona, who was most effective when painting so-called ‘grotesques’, a particular kind of ornamental design inspired by ancient Roman decorations. The frescoes are perfectly preserved and are particularly interesting due to the extreme originality of the form of pictorial expression. At the centre of the vault it the coat of arms of the Farnese family and of the Dukes of Parma and Piacenza; in the lunettes are some beautifully painted landscapes. In addition to some fine chests dating from various epochs, the room also contains a niche, closed by two wooden doors that are decorated on the outside with grotesques and on the inside with religious motifs. This niche probably served as an altar for the celebration of religious services.
The Yellow Room
The Yellow Room, also known as the Nicolò dell’Abate Room, contains four frescoes that have been transferred onto canvas, depicting mythological scenes from the life of Hercules: from the left they show ‘Hercules as a boy, choking snakes’, ‘Hercules slaughtering the Cretan Bull’, ‘Hercules killing Cacus’ and ‘Hercules killing Antaeus’. The painting ‘Cupid placing an arrow in his bow’, a work initially attributed to Parmigianino and later to Nicolò dell’Abate, is also excellent.
