SODOMA, GIOVANNI ANTONIO BAZZI, known as il. — Painter, born in Vercelli in 1477, died in Siena on 15 February 1549.
At the age of thirteen he was apprenticed by his father to learn the art from Martino Spanzotti, with whom he moved to Casale in 1496; but by 1503 he had already gone to Tuscany, where in 1504 he completed his first cycle of frescoes in the refectory of the Olivetan monastery of S. Anna in Campenna near Pienza (Siena). Between 1505 and 1508 he executed in the cloister of the monastery of Monteoliveto Maggiore (Siena) 31 frescoed scenes from the life of s. Benedict, continuing a cycle begun by Luca Signorelli (1497–1501), and in the same year he signed a contract for the decoration of the ceiling of the Stanza della Segnatura in the Vatican. The frescoes in the Villa Farnesina in Rome, with the Story of Alexander and Roxana, date from 1512 and constitute his finest work. By that time, however, he had already become the most famous painter in Siena, where he pursued an exceptionally intense and uninterrupted activity, apart from brief stays in Florence, Volterra, Pisa, Lucca, and Piombino. Among the most important commissions entrusted to him were two frescoes in the oratory of S. Bernardino (1518), the banner for the confraternity of S. Sebastiano (1525, now preserved in the Pitti Gallery), the celebrated frescoes with the Ecstasy and the Fainting of s. Catherine of Siena and the Execution of Nicolò di Tuldò in the chapel of S. Caterina in S. Domenico (1526), the images of the SS. Ansano and Vittore in the Palazzo pubblico (1529), the decoration of the chapel of the Spaniards in S. Spirito (1530), the great fresco above Porta S. Viene (or dei Pispini, 1531), the panel with the Resurrection in the National Museum of Naples (1535), the fresco in the chapel of the Campo (1537–39), and the panels with the Sacrifice of Isaac and the Deposition in the Duomo of Pisa (1540–41). In addition to these works, securely dated and documented, the following should be recalled for his youthful period: a banner with the Crucifixion, recently identified at Montalcino (Museo d'arte sacra), perhaps his earliest work; the tondo with the Nativity (no. 512) and the large panel with the Deposition (no. 413) in the Pinacoteca of Siena. Around 1514 should be placed the much-celebrated fresco of Christ at the Column, formerly in the cloister of S. Francesco and now in the Pinacoteca of Siena (no. 352), while belonging to a later period are
two other masterpieces: the large panel with the Epiphany in the church of S. Agostino in Siena, and the panel with the Holy Family and s. Leonardo, formerly in the Duomo and now in the Palazzo pubblico of Siena (ca. 1530), which aroused the admiration of Annibale Carracci. Works with secular and mythological subjects are scarce in the S.’s otherwise vast production, but are often of very high quality, such as the tondo with the Allegory of Love in the Louvre and the Lucretia in the Museum of Hannover. In 1510 S. married Beatrice di Luca Galli of Siena, by whom he had a daughter whom he gave in marriage to his favorite pupil, the Sienese painter and architect Bartolommeo Neroni, known as « il Riccio ». A bizarre and disorderly temperament, which earned him the nickname « Mattaccio », prodigal and fond of horses, S. was nevertheless protected and honored by powerful men, among them Sigismondo Chigi, Jacopo d'Appiano, prince of Piombino, and Pope Leo X, who bestowed upon him the title of Knight of Christ; his appointment as Count Palatine by Charles V, on the other hand, has not been established. The inconsistency of his character as a man is reflected in his artistic production, which displays very marked variations in quality, due above all to the haste and lack of care with which he sometimes worked. His stylistic development was initially characterized by adherence to the Piedmontese-Lombard tradition, recently reinvigorated by contributions from the Umbrian and Florentine schools; but soon, and especially after his stay in Rome in 1512, S. felt the influence of Raphael, and even more that of Leonardo, whose « sfumato » he was one of the most intelligent and skillful interpreters. A fanciful and engaging narrator, possessing an exceptionally pliable technique rich in infinite resources, S. gave the fullest measure of his great abilities when, conforming to an ideal of classical sobriety in the rigor of composition and the expression of emotions, he succeeded in avoiding that languid and sugary sentimentality to which he too often succumbed, and which nevertheless earned him, especially in the last century, immense popularity. His historical position is of the greatest importance because he was the renewer and dominant figure of Sienese pictorial taste throughout the 16th century. — Vedi tav. LVII.