Museo Diocesano Benedetto Antelami

In the basement of the Bishop's Palace, the Benedetto Antelami Diocesan Museum gathers objects recovered from the cathedral square: the original Angiol d'Or, statues from the Baptistery's north portal, a sixth-century mosaic and a stretch of late-Roman wall.

Why it matters

The museum explains the Episcopal complex from below, tracing the spread of Christianity in Parma from the Roman era onward through paleochristian finds, early medieval ceramics, Roman stuccoes and coins. Galleries in part of the palace's basement include an exposed stretch of the city's late-antique walls, dating from the end of the third century. The collection includes works by Benedetto Antelami and his circle, formerly on the Baptistery's portals, with traces of medieval polychromy still legible.

What to notice

The museum's emblem is the mosaic unearthed in 1955 south of Piazza Duomo: a sixth-century pavement of honeycomb hexagons around a central cantharos flanked by fish and dolphins, its donor inscriptions suggesting it came from a Christian place of worship, perhaps the paleochristian basilica that preceded the present Cathedral. The star object is the Angiol d'Or, the original gilded archangel that once crowned the cathedral tower: 1.42 metres tall, formed of two hollow-cast copper valves, showing Raphael with open wings, a cross and a golden halo; its sculptor is unknown, though the craft clearly knew Antelami's work, and a replica now stands on the spire. From the Baptistery's north portal come the archangels Michael and Gabriel — Michael a rare case of reuse, carved from Roman-era stone except head and feet — and the nearly free-standing Solomon and the Queen of Sheba by Antelami himself, with traces of colour. Two prophets, read as David and Nathan or possibly Habakkuk, complete the group.

Context and history

The museum bears the name of Benedetto Antelami, the twelfth-century sculptor whose 1178 Deposition in the cathedral marks a turning point toward Gothic, and whose Baptistery figures are held here. Its collection grew from the diocese's stewardship of the square, including capitals recovered from the early medieval cathedral built after a tenth-century fire destroyed the paleochristian basilica, and material from excavations around the Bishop's Palace. Interpretive panels connect the objects with the Episcopal complex, Cathedral and Baptistery.