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In 1942, the artist Carlo Mattioli was asked to paint four frescoes in the exhibition hall for the Preserved Food Exhibition [”Fiera delle Conserve”]. In addition to tomato picking, farming and fruit picking, the subject of this representation is also fishing. It’s not a picturesque fishing scene, but rather a representation of the sea, which stands out in the background. How come the canning industry is depicted with this imagery in the midst of the Po Valley? The industry became established in Parma thanks to the railway passing through and the presence of the station. The agricultural city thus transformed into an agro-industrial hub, sacrificing the Farnese walls and establishing new production plants, including those of Tosi and Rizzoli (later Società Parmigiana Prodotti Alimentari), but also many other companies born to meet the needs of the emerging preservation sector, such as Ligure Emiliana, a producer of tinplate packaging, traces of which are still preserved in the current location of Teatro Lenz near via San Leonardo. The fishing district of the canning industry thus emerged in the early decades of the 1900s as a defining economic sector of the city’s industrial production.

CREDITs

© Fotografie Stanze Andrea Lops