L'abside della discordia

Parmigianino, Giulio Romano e Anselmi alla Steccata

Abstract

This paper investigates the intricate history of the decoration of the east apse of Santa Maria della Steccata in Parma. It forms an emblematic case study of a complex artistic commission in which the aims of painters, religious and secular authorities, and heterogeneous groups of citizens intertwined and sometimes conflicted with each other. By situating the sources concerning the construction and decoration of the church in their social and historical context, the paper highlights a distinctive approach of patrons handling commissions at the “discretion of many brains”, which allows us to reframe the problems which occurred first with Parmigianino and later with Giulio Romano and Michelangelo Anselmi. Discussion then focuses on the work of the latter two artists, and proposes, along with some stylistic and chronological clarifications, the first iconographical analysis of what is revealed to be a highly sophisticated lost project by Giulio, recorded in a drawing by Federico Zuccari. A comparison between the drawing and the fresco offers a solution to the long-debated question of Giulio and Anselmi’s respective contributions to the decoration and to unlock the significance of the changes and censorship ordered by the patrons in 1547. The paper further considers the criticisms sparked by both the project and the fresco in the light of the lively debate on religious images which spread through Italy during the 1540s.