Bardi Altarpiece (Parmigianino) Bardi Altarpiece (Parmigianino) The Bardi Altarpiece (), is an Italian Mannerist painting by the Italian painter Parmigianino, dating from c. 1521 and housed in the church of Santa Maria at Bardi, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. In 1521 Parma was invaded by the imperial-papal troops under Prospero Colonna, in the course of the Italian Wars. The young Parmigianino, then seventeen, was sent by his family to Viadana to his cousin's house. According to Italian late Renaissance art biographer Giorgio Vasari, there Parmigianino painted two tempera panels: "St. Francis Receiving the Stigmata" (lost) and the "Marriage of St. Catherine", which was placed in the
Beaune Altarpiece different. The figures occupy distinctly separate niches and the colour schemes of the grisaille saints and donors contrast sharply. Like many mid-15th century polyptychs, the exterior panels borrow heavily from the "Ghent Altarpiece", which was completed in 1432. The combination of naturalistic donor portraits with grisaille imitation statues of saints is borrowed from that work, as is the treatment of the Annunciation. Van der Weyden used iconography in the Beaune exterior panels not found in his other works, which suggests Rolin may have commissioned the altarpiece to follow van Eyck's example. Van der Weyden was not inclined merely to imitate