The Magnani-Rocca Foundation with its headquarters in Villa dei Capolavori just a short distance from Parma, is one of the most important cultural institutions in Italy.

It is the permanent home to the Luigi Magnani collection with numerous prestigious works of art: from Gentile da Fabriano, Filippo Lippi, Dürer, Titian, Rubens, Van Dyck, Goya, right up to Monet, Renoir, Cézanne, De Chirico, De Pisis, Morandi and Burri.

Restoration and transformation work of the Villa into a Museum followed strict criteria to ensure perfect preservation of the works of art and make the Museum the perfect location even to host high level temporary exhibitions. The arrangement of the furnishings, precious pieces of furniture and items from the Empire period has remained almost unchanged to preserve the original atmosphere.

The same criteria was behind the recent project by the company Cavazzoni Associati Engineering to modernise and make the Museum systems more energy efficient, and Targetti was chosen as the technical partner for lighting. Replacing the existing fixtures did not require any structural changes and allows the new lighting to highlight the works on display without interfering with the architectural elements in the different halls. The Bluetooth Casambi management system the fixtures are equipped with makes it possible to set different lighting scenes and manage luminous output depending on the real and specific needs of the different environments.


The project was focused on different functional areas:


The temporary exhibition area 

For this area RAY MINI projectors with high colour rendering (Ra 97) with Zoom optical systems and onboard dimmers were chosen. This optical system allows to vary beam emission from 15° up to 60° and makes it possible to adapt lighting scenes to temporary exhibitions. Where a uniform effect on the walls was required projectors from the ZENO range with wall washer optics were used.


Permanent collection exhibition area 

The permanent collection is located on the ground and the first floors of the Villa.
The first floor has lower ceilings and smaller rooms: here tracks and projectors installed on the ceiling were used that do not interfere with the architecture and leave the space as free as possible from visual interference. For the exhibition on the first floor two lighting solutions were chosen: in the halls where there are smaller paintings on display on individual walls like for example for works by  Morandi, uniform lighting was chosen that covered the entire wall. To obtain this effect  ZENO projectors with wall washer optics equipped with Casambi control to manage luminous output were used. Where on the other hand it was necessary to focus on the works on display RAY MICRO fixtures were used. These extremely compact projectors were made specifically for the project with a very high colour rendering version (Ra 97). The ZOOM optic and the on board dimmer the RAY MICRO fixtures are equipped with allow for excellent calibration of luminous output.

On the ground floor where the main halls of the Villa are located: rooms with ceilings of various heights characterised in some cases by coffered ceilings.  Even in this area the lighting project was able to enhance both the rooms themselves and the works of art. RAY MINI and RAY MICRO projectors with ZOOM optics were used to emphasise and draw attention to the works of art on display while ZENO projectors with wall washer optics create a uniform lighting effect on the walls to highlight the architectural details. 


YEAR: 2018

PHOTOGRAPHER: Ivan Rossi

ENGINEER: Cavazzoni Associati Engineering

SITE: Parma - Italy