Stufetta di Diana e Atteone, Renaissance fresco in Rocca Sanvitale, Italy

The Stufetta di Diana e Atteone is a fresco cycle in the Rocca Sanvitale, a Renaissance fortress in the Emilia-Romagna region. The vault features fourteen lunette sections decorated with cherubs holding garlands of flowers and fruits set against a sky.

Parmigianino frescoed the vault and lunettes of this small room by July 1524, completing his work at the Sanvitale court before leaving for Rome; the Portrait of Galeazzo Sanvitale belongs to the same moment. Executed in forty days of painting, the cycle stayed little known: Vasari ignored it, and it was first described around 1566 by Anton Francesco Doni. Seicento repainting by Boselli and nineteenth-century work by Borghesi, who also closed the original doors, long obscured it until restoration confirmed the 1524 date.

The frescoes depict episodes from Ovid's Metamorphoses and tell the story of Diana and Actaeon across the walls. Visitors can follow the narrative sequence as they look around the room.

The room preserves its original Renaissance decoration scheme, with lower wall sections that likely accommodated tapestries during its active use. Visitors should allow time to take in the details across the vault and walls.

The room was painted in just forty days of fresco work, and it stayed so little known that Vasari ignored it in his life of Parmigianino, despite having the painter's cousin Girolamo Bedoli as a first-hand source. It was first described around 1566 by Anton Francesco Doni in Le Ville.