''Madonna della Scodella'' is an oil painting on panel by

Antonio da Correggio Antonio Allegri da Correggio (August 1489 – 5 March 1534), usually known as just Correggio (, also , , ), was the foremost painter of the Parma school of the High Italian Renaissance, who was responsible for some of the most vigorous and sens ...

(216,7 x 137,3 cm), dated from 1528 to about 1530 and preserved at the Galleria nazionale di Parma.

History

The panel painting was made by Correggio for the San Sepolcro, Parma. It was probably commissioned in 1524, when Cristoforo Bondini, dying, left in his will 15 lire for the creation of a painting for the altar of Saint Joseph. There are two known preparatory drawings for the painting. The result was completed in 1530, as is revealed in the inscription on the original frame:

Giorgio Vasari Giorgio Vasari (, also , ; 30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian Renaissance Master, who worked as a painter, architect, engineer, writer, and historian, who is best known for his work ''The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculpt ...

cited the work as "panel of divine painting" in the second edition of his ''Lives'' while speaking of

Girolamo da Carpi Girolamo Da Carpi (1501 – 1 August 1556) was an Italian painter and decorator who worked at the Court of the House of Este in Ferrara. He began painting in Ferrara, by report apprenticing to Benvenuto Tisi (il Garofalo); but by age 20, he had ...

, who he believed had studied in San Sepolcro. The painting remained there until 1796, when it was requisitioned by the Napoleonic government and taken to Paris. It was repatriated in 1815, after the defeat of

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

at Waterloo, and was placed in the following year in the Ducal Gallery. In 1893, at the proposal of art critic Corrado Ricci, it was reinserted into its original frame. For dating the painting, the communally agreed range is 1528–1530. Art historian

Cecil Gould Cecil Hilton Monk Gould (24 May 1918 – 7 April 1994) was a British art historian and curator A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typicall ...

believed that the angels at the highest part of the canvas were made in those years and that the lower part of the work was made, however, around 1535. ''Madonna della Scodella'' has had a long-ranging influence: it was studied by, among others,

Lelio Orsi Lelio Orsi (1508/1511 – 1587), also known as Lelio da Novellara, was a Mannerist painter and architect of the Reggio Emilia school in northern Italy. He was born and died in Novellara, and much of his work was completed in Reggio. He appear ...

Federico Barocci Federico Barocci (also written ''Barozzi'')(c. 1535 in Urbino – 1612 in Urbino) was an Italian Renaissance painter and printmaker. His original name was Federico Fiori, and he was nicknamed Il Baroccio. His work was highly esteemed and inf ...

, ,

Domenichino Domenico Zampieri (, ; October 21, 1581 – April 6, 1641), known by the diminutive Domenichino (, ) after his shortness, was an Italian Baroque painter of the Bolognese School of painters. Life Domenichino was born in Bologna, son of a shoem ...

, as well as

Carlo Maratta Carlo Maratta or Maratti (13 May 162515 December 1713) was an Italian painter, active mostly in Rome, and known principally for his classicizing paintings executed in a Late Baroque Classical manner. Although he is part of the classical tradition ...

and

Pompeo Batoni Pompeo Girolamo Batoni (25 January 1708 – 4 February 1787) was an Italian painter who displayed a solid technical knowledge in his portrait work and in his numerous allegorical and mythological pictures. The high number of foreign visitors tra ...

. A 1724 copy of the painting hangs in the chapel of

Palais Rohan, Strasbourg The Palais Rohan (Rohan Palace) in Strasbourg is the former residence of the prince-bishops and cardinals of the House of Rohan, an ancient French noble family originally from Brittany. It is a major architectural, historical, and cultural lan ...

Description and style

The painting depicts an episode in the infancy of

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

narrated in

apocryphal Apocrypha are works, usually written, of unknown authorship or of doubtful origin. The word ''apocryphal'' (ἀπόκρυφος) was first applied to writings which were kept secret because they were the vehicles of esoteric knowledge considered ...

Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew (or The Infancy Gospel of Matthew) is a part of the New Testament apocrypha. In antiquity the text was called The Book About the Origin of the Blessed Mary and the Childhood of the Savior. Pseudo-Matthew is one of a g ...

: while returning to

Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...

after the

Flight into Egypt The flight into Egypt is a story recounted in the Gospel of Matthew ( Matthew 2:13– 23) and in New Testament apocrypha. Soon after the visit by the Magi, an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream telling him to flee to Egypt with Mary and the i ...

and during a break in the shade of a date palm, the

Sacred Family The Holy Family consists of the Child Jesus, the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph. The subject became popular in art from the 1490s on, but veneration of the Holy Family was formally begun in the 17th century by Saint François de Laval, the first ...

were fed thanks to the tree, which, folding extraordinarily, offered its fruits to the travelers. The

Virgin Virginity is the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. The term ''virgin'' originally only referred to sexually inexperienced women, but has evolved to encompass a range of definitions, as found in traditional, modern ...

is represented in the act of collecting the fruits, with a bowl of water miraculously appearing to quench Jesus' thirst. From this the traditional name of the work is derived. The title with which it is known also signified the importance that Correggio wished to place, as with his '' Madonna of the Basket'' on the simple object of the bowl. This iconography was not often used in Italian artistic production. It was, however, more frequent to the North, as displayed by the works of

Albrecht Altdorfer Albrecht Altdorfer (12 February 1538) was a German painter, engraver and architect of the Renaissance working in Regensburg, Bavaria. Along with Lucas Cranach the Elder and Wolf Huber he is regarded to be the main representative of the Danube Sc ...

and

Lucas Cranach Cranach is a German-language surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Augustin Cranach (1554–1595), German painter *Hans Cranach (c. 1513–1537), German painter *Lucas Cranach the Elder (c. 1472–1553), German artist *Lucas Cranach th ...

. The protagonist role of Joseph was a response to the needs of the Fraternity that commissioned the painting. The image is constructed on a diagonal line, that opens on the left with the bowl of silver and follows the intertwining of hands by the Virgin, Baby Jesus, and Joseph. The pose of Jesus, in a calculated

contrapposto ''Contrapposto'' () is an Italian term that means "counterpoise". It is used in the visual arts to describe a human figure standing with most of its weight on one foot, so that its shoulders and arms twist off-axis from the hips and legs in the a ...

, allows him to act as a link between the represented scene and the real world of the observer, to whom he turns a knowing gaze. On high, a glory of angels frees itself in an animated spiral that recalls the Correggio's frescoes for his ''

Assumption of the Virgin The Assumption of Mary is one of the four Catholic_Mariology#Dogmatic_teachings, Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. Pope Pius XII defined it in 1950 in his apostolic constitution ''Munificentissimus Deus'' as follows: We proclaim and d ...

'' in the Parma

duomo ''Duomo'' (, ) is an Italian term for a church with the features of, or having been built to serve as, a cathedral, whether or not it currently plays this role. Monza Cathedral, for example, has never been a diocesan seat and is by definition not ...

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * {{Antonio da Correggio category:1530 paintings Scodella Panel painting