The coat of arms of the Del Bono family, at the bottom left (“D’azzurro ad un monte di rosso sostenente una palla d’argento accompagnata da tre stelle dello stesso poste in sbarro due a destra e due a sinistra”) while symmetrically to the right appears the one dedicated to the Sacro Cuore di Gesù, and the respective inscriptions lead the altarpiece back to its original provenance and commissioner, the Del Bono chapel in the church of San Giovanni Evangelista.
This was of course enough to draw the attention of Correggio’s exegetes to it, both in relation to the two lateral canvases (see entries nos. 147 and 148), and in relation to the decoration of the archway, especially considering the circumstance that the presence of a central altarpiece in the chapel itself has never been reported (not even in Castelli’s pastoral visit of 1578). The historical literature relating to this painted altarpiece unanimously reports the date of 1502, unfortunately without ever citing documentation on the subject, however, taking up the old catalogue entry for the Superintendency of Parma drawn up by Laudadeo Testi in 1922, it seems that the dating dates back to him.
Now, keeping in mind that Testi is careful to order with methodical expertise the documents relating to the abbey of San Giovanni Evangelista (he is the author of a work, Il tempio di San Giovanni Evangelista in Parma e gli affreschi del Correggio, which remained at the manuscript stage and was partially used by Adorni 1979), a possible dating derives from this, even if not documented and perhaps a little early with respect to the characteristics of the artefact. In these terms, however, the hypothesis is also accepted by Popham (1957a), who, reconstructing the family history of the Del Bonos intertwined with that of the patronage of the chapel, places its acquisition between 1492 and 1502, and cites our altarpiece, putting forward the names of Filippo Mazzola and Alessandro Araldi for the three figurative panels, confirming on the other hand the impossibility, given its certain dimensions, of being able to link it to one of the altarpieces present or coming from the same church. Material data that still appear incontrovertible, even if there is no lack of discordant voices (Cirillo – Godi 1984) which, taking up an ancient indication that however makes no mention of the altarpiece, of the local guides (Affò 1796, p. 19; Ruta 1780, p. 51) in relation to a painting by Francesco Francia depicting the Madonna col Bambino identify it in the panel with Santi benedettini currently in the Galleria Nazionale in Parma (inv. 130, I vol. card no. 98), of absolutely irreconcilable measurements.
And in fact the hypothesis is also denied by Ekserdjian (1997), who unfortunately does not even accept that of the dating, forcing the data to the point of proposing a contemporary placement with the execution of the frescoes in the archway (post 1525) and an attribution to the “workshop” of Correggio. In relation to which both the formal quality of the painted panels and the linguistic characteristics of the piece of furniture contradict (and it would be enough to compare it with the large architectural altarpiece, dated 1530, of the Madonna della scodella, moreover just a few steps away in the Gallery, entry no. 150). Which go in another direction: both the decline of the golden decoration on the pastel blue background, and the lexical apparatus with candelabra motifs on the lateral bands and on the trabeation in which masks, bucrania, triglyphs, vases and metopes dominate between acanthus scrolls, and finally the presence of massive figural elements in the cymatium (God the Father half-length and a pair of angels), refer to Tuscan but above all Venetian models to be placed around the first decade of the 16th century. That is, they bring us back to a hypothesis of the first arrangement of the chapel (then transformed shortly thereafter, as Battisti 1979, p. 132 mentions), abandoned (and the frame in question was in fact lying in the monastery’s deposits) perhaps at the time of Correggio’s intervention, in favor of the hypothesis, more articulated and “modern” in the Roman direction, of the two lateral ones compared to the more traditional and “dated” one, of the central altarpiece. If, as it turns out, Placido Del Bono professed himself a monk in 1481 (Piva 1988, p. 175) nothing prevents him from having managed, together with his blood relative Pietro (presumably his father), the decorative enterprise of the family chapel almost from the beginning, in different planning stages. Perhaps calling, in this phase, before the arrival in San Giovanni of the innovative and modern artist, the one who at the time was considered the greatest, namely Cristoforo Caselli, to work on the altarpiece with the Adorazione dei Magi in the third chapel of the same church in 1499. Only a hypothesis, also considering the more lively, fibrous and mannered ductus of the panels with the Annunciazione, however the name of Caselli is suggested, in addition to the already indicated Venetian taste of the wooden apparatus, precisely by the morphological elements detectable in the tondo with the Cristo morto. Presented behind the edge of the tomb as in many Bellini prototypes, it displays hair twisted into a very well-defined curl in the manner of Vivarini, a stylistic device widely found in the works of the painter from Parma, but completely different from the “thinned” hair, soft and silky (see in this regard the Christ in the Deposizione by Del Bono) that Vasari admired and praised so much.
Luisa Viola’s card, taken from Fornari Schianchi L. (edited by), Galleria Nazionale di Parma. Catalogue of the works The Cinquecento, Franco Maria Ricci, Milan, 1998.