This paper aims to shed light on a precise moment in the artistic history of Monte Oliveto Maggiore – identifiable between the 1530s and 1540s – involving the painters Bartolomeo Neroni known as 'Il Riccio' and the Rimini-born Bartolomeo Coda. The former has so far been connected with the payment to a “maestro Bartholomeo pintore”, registered on 8 March 1540, which some have suggested refers to the final balance for the decoration of the so-called Sala del “Banchetto”. A closer examination of the expense note, however, shows that the recipient of the payment was in fact Bartolomeo Coda, who had been called to Monte Oliveto for a series of important works, including the frescoes executed for the chapter house. To these should be added a second cycle, until now much neglected, on the walls of the abbot's private chapel, showing the unmistakable stylistic traits of the Rimini master. It is probable that the latter's devout and engaging painting style met the taste of a mid-16th-century monastic community better than others, but it must also have been the excellent relations maintained with the religious order that opened the doors of the mother house of the Olivetan Congregation to the Coda workshop. In this sense, the Olivetan monk Fra Innocenzo da Rimini, who accompanied Bartolomeo during his stay in Chiusure, could prove to be a key figure. Indeed, there is a real possibility that he was in fact one of the brothers of the painter from Romagna, he too skilled in the use of paints and brushes.
In conclusion, we will again reflect on the dating of the painting programme devised by Riccio for the Sala del “Banchetto”, now lacking any connection to the payment of March 1540. A more accurate chronological reference is, if anything, indicated by a passage from the abbey's manuscript chronicles, which associates the setting up and decoration of the room to the second year in office of the abbot from Prato, Vito Castelli, which lasted from the spring of 1541 to spring of the following year.