A detail of the Coronation of the Virgin. Semi-dome of the apse

Copy of Correggio's original by Cesare Aretusi. Allegri's fresco works depicting the Coronation of the Virgin in the gallery, as the documents underline, had already begun on May 28th1522 and probably ended on November 1st of the same year, and therefore after the decoration of the dome already started in July 1519. When the monks decided to demolish the choir under the dome and move it behind the altar, they realized that the apse would be too small. So they decided to tear it down and, in order not to lose Correggio's fresco, they wanted it to be copied, in oil, and also provided for the creation of transparencies with details at the same size as the originals; only after the copy was made, demolition was carried out during which only the upper central half of the blessed group and a few splendid heads of little angels were saved. Equally eventful is the story of the tiny fragments of the fresco, whose last act before the destruction it was characterized by a rush to find copies of the details; we remember here the most famous made by the Carracci and especially by Annibale, preserved mainly today in Capodimonte and at the National Gallery of Parma. In addition to the Virgin crowned by Jesus, today in the National Gallery of Parma, three tiny fragments with the heads of angels remain of the original by Correggio, one at the National Gallery in London, one at the Museum of Fine Art in Boston and one, by recently rediscovered, in a private collection.