Il Sodoma (1477 – 14 February 1549) was the name given to the
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance languag ...
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...
painter
Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...
Giovanni Antonio Bazzi. Il Sodoma painted in a manner that superimposed the
High Renaissance
In art history, the High Renaissance was a short period of the most exceptional artistic production in the Italian states, particularly Rome, capital of the Papal States, and in Florence, during the Italian Renaissance. Most art historians stat ...
style of early 16th-century Rome onto the traditions of the provincial
Sienese school; he spent the bulk of his professional life in
Siena
Siena ( , ; traditionally spelled Sienna in English; ) is a city in Tuscany, in central Italy, and the capital of the province of Siena. It is the twelfth most populated city in the region by number of inhabitants, with a population of 52,991 ...
, with two periods in Rome.
Biography
Giovanni Bazzi was born in
Vercelli
Vercelli (; ) is a city and ''comune'' of 46,552 inhabitants (January 1, 2017) in the Province of Vercelli, Piedmont, northern Italy. One of the oldest urban sites in northern Italy, it was founded, according to most historians, around 600 BC.
...
,
Piedmont
Piedmont ( ; ; ) is one of the 20 regions of Italy, located in the northwest Italy, Northwest of the country. It borders the Liguria region to the south, the Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna regions to the east, and the Aosta Valley region to the ...
, in 1477. His first master was the "archaic"
Martino Spanzotti; he also appears to have been a student of the painter
Giovenone. After acquiring the strong colouring and other distinctive stylistic features of the Lombard school and – though he is not known to have travelled to Milan – somehow absorbing the superficial mannerisms of
Leonardo, he travelled to Siena before 1503, perhaps at the behest of agents of the
Spannocchi family, and began with fresco cycles for
Olivetan monks and a series of small Ovidian ceiling panels and a frieze depicting the career of
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar (12 or 13 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in Caesar's civil wa ...
for
Sigismondo Chigi at
Palazzo Chigi
The Chigi Palace ( ) is a palace and former noble residence in Rome which is the seat of the Council of Ministers and the official residence of the Prime Minister of Italy. It is located in the Piazza Colonna, next to Palazzo Montecitorio, s ...
.

Along with
Pinturicchio
Pinturicchio, or Pintoricchio (, ; born Bernardino di Betto; 1454–1513), also known as Benetto di Biagio or Sordicchio, was an Italian Renaissance painter. He acquired his nickname (meaning "little painter") because of his small stature a ...
, Sodoma was one of the first to practice in Siena the style of the
High Renaissance
In art history, the High Renaissance was a short period of the most exceptional artistic production in the Italian states, particularly Rome, capital of the Papal States, and in Florence, during the Italian Renaissance. Most art historians stat ...
. His first important works were frescoes in the
Benedictine
The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...
monastery of
Monte Oliveto Maggiore, on the road from Siena to Rome, illustrating the life of
St Benedict
Benedict of Nursia (; ; 2 March 480 – 21 March 547), often known as Saint Benedict, was a Christian monk. He is famed in the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Lutheran Churches, the Anglican Communion, and Old Catholic Ch ...
in continuation of the series that
Luca Signorelli had begun in 1498.
Gaining fluency in the prevailing popular style of Pinturicchio, Sodoma completed the set in 1502 and included a self-portrait with badgers and ravens.
Sodoma was invited to Rome in 1508 by the celebrated Sienese merchant
Agostino Chigi and was employed there by
Pope Julius II
Pope Julius II (; ; born Giuliano della Rovere; 5 December 144321 February 1513) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 1503 to his death, in February 1513. Nicknamed the Warrior Pope, the Battle Pope or the Fearsome ...
in the
Stanza della Segnatura
The four Raphael Rooms () form a suite of reception rooms in the Apostolic Palace, now part of the Vatican Museums, in Vatican City. They are famous for their frescoes, painted by Raphael and his workshop. Together with Michelangelo's Sistine Chap ...
in the
Vatican
Vatican may refer to:
Geography
* Vatican City, an independent city-state surrounded by Rome, Italy
* Vatican Hill, in Rome, namesake of Vatican City
* Ager Vaticanus, an alluvial plain in Rome
* Vatican, an unincorporated community in the ...
. He executed two great compositions and various ornaments and grotesques
in vaulted ceilings divided into feigned compartments in the antique manner that Pinturicchio had recently revived, working at the same time as
Raphael
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), now generally known in English as Raphael ( , ), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. List of paintings by Raphael, His work is admired for its cl ...
.
Giorgio Vasari
Giorgio Vasari (30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian Renaissance painter, architect, art historian, and biographer who is best known for his work ''Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects'', considered the ideol ...
's rhetorical story that Sodoma's larger works did not satisfy the pope, who engaged Raphael to substitute a program of ''Justice, Poetry, and Theology'', is not borne out by the documents.
Before October 1510 he was in Siena, where he painted the exterior of Palazzo Chigi in monochrome
chiaroscuro
In art, chiaroscuro ( , ; ) is the use of strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition. It is also a technical term used by artists and art historians for the use of contrasts of light to ach ...
with scenes from the Bible and from Antiquity, the first such work seen in Siena. His painting at this time began to show distinct Florentine influences, especially of
Fra Bartolommeo.

Called again to Rome by Chigi, in the Villa Chigi (now the
Villa Farnesina
The Villa Farnesina is a Renaissance suburban villa in the Via della Lungara, in the district of Trastevere in Rome, central Italy. Built between 1506 and 1510 for Agostino Chigi, the Pope's wealthy Sienese banker, it was a novel type of suburb ...
), working alongside
Baldassarre Peruzzi, Sodoma painted subjects from the life of
Alexander the Great
Alexander III of Macedon (; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), most commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the Ancient Greece, ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia (ancient kingdom), Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip ...
: ''Alexander in the Tent of Darius'' and the ''Nuptials of the Conqueror with Roxanne'', which some people consider his masterpiece. When
Leo X
Pope Leo X (; born Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici, 11 December 14751 December 1521) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 9 March 1513 to his death in December 1521.
Born into the prominent political and banking Me ...
became pope (1513), Sodoma presented him with a picture of the ''Death of Lucretia'' (or of
Cleopatra
Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator (; The name Cleopatra is pronounced , or sometimes in both British and American English, see and respectively. Her name was pronounced in the Greek dialect of Egypt (see Koine Greek phonology). She was ...
, according to some accounts). Leo gave him a large sum of money as a reward and created him a ''
cavaliere
The Italian honours system is a means to reward achievements or service to the Italian Republic, formerly the Kingdom of Italy, including the Italian Social Republic.
Orders of chivalry
Italian Republic
There are five orders of knightho ...
''.
In his youth, Bazzi had married, but he and his wife soon separated. A daughter married
Bartolomeo Neroni, called also ''Riccio Sanese'' or ''Maestro Riccio'', one of his principal pupils.
Bazzi acquired his nickname of ''Il Sodoma'', as it were "the
sodomite", from as early as 1512.
This appears to have been one among various nicknames, he was also known as ''Mattaccio'' or ''Matazo'' ("the madman") among the monks of Monte Oliveto.
It is due to the contemporary art historian
Giorgio Vasari
Giorgio Vasari (30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian Renaissance painter, architect, art historian, and biographer who is best known for his work ''Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects'', considered the ideol ...
that Bazzi's nickname of ''Il Sodoma'' has become conventional.
According to Vasari's testimony, Bazzi always surrounded himself with "boys and beardless youths, whom he loved more than was decent", for which reason he acquired the nickname ''Il Soddoma''.
Still, according to Vasari, Bazzi took pride in the nickname and composed stanzas and songs about it.
Bazzi returned to Siena and, at a later date, sought work in
Pisa
Pisa ( ; ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Tuscany, Central Italy, straddling the Arno just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for the Leaning Tow ...
,
Volterra
Volterra (; Latin: ''Volaterrae'') is a walled mountaintop town in the Tuscany region of Italy. Its history dates from before the 8th century BC and it has substantial structures from the Etruscan, Roman, and Medieval periods.
History
...
, and
Lucca
Città di Lucca ( ; ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the Serchio River, in a fertile plain near the Ligurian Sea. The city has a population of about 89,000, while its Province of Lucca, province has a population of 383,9 ...
. From Lucca, he returned to Siena not long before his death on 14 February 1549 (older narratives say 1554). He had supposedly squandered his property and is said, without documentary support, to have died in penury in the great hospital of Siena.
One of his pupils is known as
Giomo del Sodoma.
Work
Some critics see in Sodoma's ''Madonna'' in the
Pinacoteca di Brera
The Pinacoteca di Brera ("Brera Art Gallery") is the main public gallery for paintings in Milan, Italy. It contains one of the foremost collections of Italian paintings from the 13th to the 20th century, an outgrowth of the cultural program of ...
(if it really is by him) the direct influence of
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 1452 - 2 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested o ...
. Modern criticism tends not to follow
Giovanni Morelli in supposing that
Raphael
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), now generally known in English as Raphael ( , ), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. List of paintings by Raphael, His work is admired for its cl ...
painted Sodoma's portrait next to himself in ''
The School of Athens
''The School of Athens'' () is a fresco by the Italian Renaissance artist Raphael. It was painted between 1509 and 1511 as part of a commission by Pope Julius II to decorate the rooms now called the in the Apostolic Palace in Vatican City.
...
'', while a drawing at Christ Church is supposed to be a portrait of Raphael by Sodoma.
Among his masterpieces are the frescoes, completed in 1526, in the chapel of
St. Catherine of Siena painted for the church of
San Domenico (Siena), depicting the saint in ecstasy, fainting as she receives the
Eucharist
The Eucharist ( ; from , ), also called Holy Communion, the Blessed Sacrament or the Lord's Supper, is a Christianity, Christian Rite (Christianity), rite, considered a sacrament in most churches and an Ordinance (Christianity), ordinance in ...
from an angel. In the
Oratory of San Bernardino, are scenes from the history of the
Virgin
Virginity is a social construct that denotes the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. As it is not an objective term with an operational definition, social definitions of what constitutes virginity, or the lack thereof ...
, painted in conjunction with
Girolamo del Pacchia and
Domenico di Pace Beccafumi (1536–1538). These frescoes depict the ''
Visitation ''and the ''
Assumption''. In
San Francesco are the ''Deposition from the Cross'' (1513) and ''Christ Scourged''. Many critics regard one or the other of these paintings as Sodoma's masterpiece. In the choir of
Pisa Cathedral
Pisa Cathedral (), officially the Primatial Metropolitan Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary (), is a medieval Catholic cathedral dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, in the Piazza dei Miracoli in Pisa, Italy, the oldest of the three s ...
is the ''Sacrifice of Abraham'', and in the
Uffizi
The Uffizi Gallery ( ; , ) is a prominent art museum adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence in the region of Tuscany, Italy. One of the most important Italian museums and the most visited, it is also one of th ...
Gallery of Florence a ''St. Sebastian''.
Some of his works, including the ''Holy Family'' now in the
Pinacoteca Nazionale (Siena)
The Pinacoteca Nazionale is a national museum in Siena, Tuscany, Italy. Inaugurated in 1932, it houses especially late medieval and Renaissance paintings from Italian artists. It is housed in the Brigidi and Buonsignori palaces in the city's cente ...
have been mistaken for works of Leonardo da Vinci. His easel pictures are rare; there are two in the
National Gallery
The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of more than 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current di ...
, London.
Partial list of works
*''Flagellation of Christ'' (1510) -
Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
*''The Road to Calvary'' (1510) -
Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
*''Cinuzzi Deposition'' (before 1513) -
Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena
*''The Death of Lucretia'' (1513) -
Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
*''Saint George and Dragon
(1518) -
National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art is an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of charge, the museum was privately established in ...
, Washington, D.C.
*''Rape of the Sabine Women
(1525) -
Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Rome
*''St. Sebastian'' (1525) -
Oil on canvas, 206 x 154 cm Galleria degli Uffizi
The Uffizi Gallery ( ; , ) is a prominent art museum adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence in the region of Tuscany, Italy. One of the most important Italian museums and the most visited, it is also one of th ...
, Florence
*''Three Fates
(1525) -
Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica Rome
*''Adoration of the Magi'' () -
Sant'Agostino, Siena[A dispute concerning the painting and a tondo now in the ]Walters Art Museum
The Walters Art Museum is a public art museum located in the Mount Vernon, Baltimore, Mount Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland. Founded and opened in 1934, it holds collections from the mid-19th century that were amassed substantially ...
, Baltimore, was resolved in 1536; Wolfgang Loseries, "Sodoma's 'Holy Family' in Baltimore: The 'Lost' Arduini tondo" ''The Burlington Magazine'' 136 No. 1092 (March 1994), pp. 168–170 notes a miniature dated 1532 that adapts Sodoma's composition.
*''Ordination of Saint Alfonso'' (1530) -
Santo Spirito, Siena
*''Crying for dead Christ'' or ''Pietà'' (1533) -
Museo Soumaya, Mexico City
*''Saint Jerome in Penitence'' (c. 1535–1545) -
National Gallery
The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of more than 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current di ...
, London
*''
The Holy Family with Saint John the Baptist and an Angel'' (c. 1535–1545) -
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg
*''The Mystical Marriage of Saint Catherine
(1539–1540) -
Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Rome
*''Pietà'' (1540) -
Galleria Borghese
The or Borghese Gallery is an art gallery in Rome, Italy, housed in the former Villa Borghese Pinciana. At the outset, the gallery building was integrated with its gardens, but nowadays the Villa Borghese gardens are considered a separate touri ...
, Rome
*''Sacra Conversazione '' (1542) -
Museo Nazionale di San Matteo, Pisa
*''Saint Sebastian with Madonna and Angels'' (1542) -
Museo Nazionale di San Matteo, Pisa
*''Allegory of Celestial Love'',
Chigi-Saracini Collection, Siena
*''Leda'' Galleria Borghese, Roma
*''Santa Maddalena'' (Private collection)
*''The Marriage of Alexander and Roxanne'' -
Fresco, Villa Farnesina
The Villa Farnesina is a Renaissance suburban villa in the Via della Lungara, in the district of Trastevere in Rome, central Italy. Built between 1506 and 1510 for Agostino Chigi, the Pope's wealthy Sienese banker, it was a novel type of suburb ...
, Rome
*
Procession to Calvary' –
Museum & Gallery, Inc., South Carolina
*''Pietà'' (Private collection)
Critical assessments
It is said that Sodoma jeered at
Giorgio Vasari
Giorgio Vasari (30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian Renaissance painter, architect, art historian, and biographer who is best known for his work ''Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects'', considered the ideol ...
's ''
Lives of the Artists
''The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects'' () is a series of artist biographies written by 16th-century Italian painter and architect Giorgio Vasari, which is considered "perhaps the most famous, and even today the ...
'' and that Vasari repaid him by presenting a negative account of Sodoma's morals and demeanour and withholding praise of his work. According to Vasari, the name by which Bazzi was known was "Il Mattaccio" (the Madcap, the Maniac), this epithet having been bestowed upon him by the monks of Monte Oliveto. He dressed gaudily, like a mountebank, and his house was a
Noah's ark, owing to the strange miscellany of animals he kept there. He was a cracker of jokes and fond of music, and he sang poems composed by himself on indecorous subjects.
Vasari alleges that Sodoma was always a negligent artist, his early success in Siena, where he painted many portraits, being partly due to lack of competition, a judgment in which
Sydney Freedberg concurs. Vasari asserts that as he aged, he became too "lazy" to make cartoons for his frescoes but daubed them straight onto the wall. Vasari nevertheless admits that Sodoma produced some works of very fine quality and that during his lifetime his reputation was high.
Notes
References
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*Zarucchi, Jeanne Morgan (2015). "Vasari's Biography of Bazzi as 'Soddoma:' Art History and Literary Analysis," ''Italian Studies'', Vol. 70, No. 2 (May 2015), pp. 167–190.
*Zarucchi, Jeanne Morgan (2017). "Félibien's Biography of 'Le Sodoma' and the Politics of Immorality," ''French Studies Bulletin'', Vol. 38.1, No. 142 (Spring 2017), pp. 7–10.
External links
*
''Leonardo da Vinci: anatomical drawings from the Royal Library, Windsor Castle'' exhibition catalog fully online as PDF from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which contains material on Il Sodoma (see index)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sodoma, Il
1477 births
1540s deaths
15th-century Italian painters
16th-century Italian painters
Bisexual painters
Italian LGBTQ painters
Painters from Piedmont
Painters from Siena
Italian male painters
Italian Mannerist painters
Italian Renaissance painters
People from Vercelli