The choir of St. John the Evangelist

The black monks commissioned Marcantonio Zucchi (25 November 1512) to create a wooden choir for the church, which, according to tradition, characterized the furniture and liturgy of the religious order. When the artist died, the completion of the unfinished work (six seats) was entrusted to the brothers Gianfrancesco and Pasquale Testa (deed 7 August 1532), who presumably concluded the work in 1538. The choir is made up of forty-one backs, both upper and lower, and twenty-eight smaller benches without kneelers. The dossals, crowned by a rich decoration. The high-value inlays, that extend to the entire wooden plant, derive from the testimonies very well spread also in Parma by the Canozi da Lendinara.