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The background of our collage is the Farnese Theater in Parma. Previously used as a weapons room for exercises, it was transformed into a performance hall in 1618 using unusual materials such as wood, straw and painted stucco.
It was commissioned by Ranuccio Farnese, Duke of Parma and Piacenza, who wanted to emulate the beauties of the Florentine court of the Medici.
Curiously, the theater was used only ten times, from 1628 to 1732, on the occasion of illustrious visits or ducal weddings.

The smiling young woman at the center of the collage was portrayed by Parmigianino in 1532, but the identity of this woman has remained a mystery.
In the Renaissance, beautiful women and their portraits were often seen as poetic muses who inspired poets and painters. This model is directly connected to poetry through the ornament on her headdress, which depicts a winged horse, a symbol of poetic inspiration. She could therefore be the poet Veronica Gambara, whom Parmigianino had many opportunities to meet.

The identity is not certain even for the two characters who are on either side of the poetess in the collage: they are certainly two men of letters, given that one of them is intent on writing, and very ancient, Greek or Roman poets who have been dead for centuries, like the skull animal explicitly indicates.

Instead, the bust with historiated armor placed under the portrait of Veronica is certainly Francesco II Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua.
Now the two were contemporaries and from two neighboring cities; and Franceso's reputation is that of a leader and heartthrob. As a soldier he was at the service of many powers of the time, from the Pope of Rome (see the angel who admires him) to the Doge of Venice, and as a Latin lover he conquered the sixteen-year-old Isabella d'Este, a virtuous and cultured bride, and then many other lovers of whom we do not have a precise list. However, we know two things: that Francis died of syphilis in 1519; and Isabella had a small study built, where she retreated to read and meditate, embellished with two paintings by Correggio: the Allegory of Vice and that of Virtue.

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