SODOMA, Il

This fresco is in the former chapter house adjacent to the Great Cloister.

The apparent rivalry between Sodoma and Beccafumi, already suggested in their work in the Oratory of San Bernardino and their paintings of Saint Catherine, is evident in a number of innovative altarpieces produced by the two painters for the Siena’s principal churches. Although both painters were commissioned to execute altarpieces that represented the theme of the Virgin and Christ Child enthroned with saints, they also produced a series of narrative altarpieces which pushed beyond the conventional boundaries for the representation of these subjects.

The earliest of these works was Sodoma’s monumental altarpiece of the Deposition of Christ. Still within its blue and gold wooden frame and with its predella, this painting is now housed within Siena’s Pinacoteca and is therefore divorced from the surroundings for which it was designed. From descriptions of the altarpiece in the sixteenth-century, it seems that it was commissioned for the altar of the Cinuzzi family in the church of San Francesco, and the family’s coat-of-arms accordingly appears at either end of the predella. Sodoma’s altarpiece thus once stood over the fifth altar along the south wall of this barn-like mendicant church. By virtue of its imposing size, its bright and luminous colours and its clear, expressive figurative composition, the altarpiece would undoubtedly have been a striking sight in its setting.

Regarding the altarpiece’s original impact, it is worth noting Vasari’s brief praise of it in the 1568 edition of the Lives. Although generally critical of Sodoma and his work - because of his allegedly dissolute life-style - Vasari commented that this painting was considered to be one of the best that Sodoma produced. Specifically, Vasari singled out for praise a man seen from the back but whose face is also visible in the helmet lying on the ground; with his striking parti-coloured hose, gleaming cuirass and swaggering pose he is certainly an eye-catching feature of the painting. Moreover, the tiny detail of this figure, seen from the front and as if reflected on the polished surface of the metal helmet, is unquestionably a testimony to Sodoma’s powers of visual observation.

This painting (presently on loan to the Brera from a private collection) can be considered one of the most refined of the panel paintings by Sodoma.

The picture highlights the half-length figure of Christ, whose bound hands are crossed in front of his naked breast. Two figures emerges from the dark background: the man on the left seems to be a Roman soldier. The man on the right is of mature age, wearing a turban, and he seems to touch the shoulder of Christ from behind.

The painting is part of the predella of the altarpiece representing the Deposition (Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena). Two other panels of the predella, The Taking of Christ and The Road to Calvary is also in the Budapest Museum.

Scene 11 of the cycle on the life of St Benedict depicts as Benedict founds twelve monasteries and supervises their construction.

Some scenes of the cycle depicts the range of tasks that had to be accomplished to maintain the monastery’s self-sufficiency. Among these are the erection of churches and other buildings in accordance with the founder’s precepts (e.g. Scenes 11, 32).

The chief appeal of Sodoma’s paintings is their realistic depiction of life in the monastery. The scene in which the monks are building a church (Scene 11) is a fine example. A mason perched on scaffolding supported by the capitals of a colonnade is nearly finished with the job of troweling plaster onto the brick vaulting. In the background another workman is whitewashing the new vaults with a brush attached to a long pole. A stonecutter kneels in the foreground as he puts the finishing touches on the base for the next column.

Scene 12 of the cycle on the life of St Benedict depicts Benedict receiving the two Roman boys Maurus and Placidus.

This busy scene shows the definite influence of Pinturicchio’s cycle in the Piccolomini Library in Siena. Sodoma’s inspiration may well have been the coronation of Pope Pius III, which is similarly crowded with figures. Sodoma had lived in Siena since 1500, and there he absorbed much of Pinturicchio’s world of dandified grooms and dense crowds filled with heraldic colour, making it a part of his own stylistic repertoire.

Scene 13 of the cycle on the life of St Benedict depicts Benedict freeing a monk who has been possessed by whipping him.

In a number of scenes Benedict is required to be stern with his weaker brothers, either because they have become possessed by demons (Scene 13) or because they have given in to their cravings (Scene 25).

The picture shows the landscape detail of Scene 15 of the cycle which depicts Benedict fishing the pieces of a broken ax out of the water and the ax is made whole.

Scene 19 of the cycle on the life of St Benedict depicts Benedict sending away the harlots that the monk Florentius sent into the monastery.

According to the documents, Sodoma started working in the southwest corner of the cloister, his first painting was Scene 19, next to the last scene by Signorelli (Scene 20).

The scenes in which the community is confronted with a group of voluptuous women (Scene 19) and two of the brothers gorge themselves at a nearby inn (Scene 25) stand out with their brighter colours and rich details.

The most scandalous episode Vasari includes in his discussion of Sodoma’s stay at Monteoliveto Maggiore has to do with the picture showing the evil Florentius’s attempt to corrupt his fellow monks (Scene 19). To expose the brothers to temptation, the sources tell us, Florentius sneaked seven naked harlots into the monastery. Vasari insists that Sodoma actually painted the women nude, hiding his picture from the eyes of the monks until it was finished. At its unveiling, the abbot was so enraged by Sodoma’s affront to propriety that he demanded that the work be destroyed. The painter ultimately managed to appease him by agreeing to put clothes on the offending nudes. Although there is no evidence of such last-minute changes to the painting, the story may have a certain amount of truth to it, for the notion of “seven naked girls” comes straight from the Golden Legend.

Scene 1 of the cycle on the life of St Benedict depicts Benedict leaving his parent’s house in Norcia to study in Rome. He is accompanied by his nurse, Cirilla. The young saint, seated on a very lively and temperamental white horse, stands out effectively against the broad landscape. He has turned in the saddle to look back at his parents, who are staying behind, while a groom sets out ahead. The composition was inspired by the first scene in Pinturicchio’s Siena cycle.

Scene 30 of the cycle on the life of St Benedict depicts Benedict foretelling the destruction of Montecassino.

In some of his scenes (e.g. in Scene 30) Sodoma illustrates successive phases of a single event. That this technique might be used to depict moment-by-moment developments within a particular episode is vividly illustrated by Scene 6, which also happens to incorporate a real window in the picture composition.

In this scene the viewer is far more captivated by the massive rump of a horse looming up in the foreground or the two men scuffling on the right than by the actual subject matter, which is presented only in a tiny secondary scene in the background.

Scene 31 of the cycle on the life of St Benedict depicts as Benedict is given an abundance of flour and feeds the monks.

Some scenes of the cycle depicts the range of tasks that had to be accomplished to maintain the monastery’s self-sufficiency. We see the founder securing for the community the necessities of their existence: fresh spring water, or flour for bread.

Scene 32 of the cycle on the life of St Benedict depicts as Benedict appears in the dreams of two distant monks and gives them the plan for a new monastery.

Some scenes of the cycle depicts the range of tasks that had to be accomplished to maintain the monastery’s self-sufficiency. Among these are the erection of churches and other buildings in accordance with the founder’s precepts (e.g. Scenes 11, 32).

Scene 33 of the cycle on the life of St Benedict depicts as Benedict gives posthumous absolution to two nuns, fleeing from their graves during Mass, whom he had threatened with excommunication.

One notable scene of the cycle is devoted to the story of two haughty and talkative nuns whom Benedict had threatened with excommunication (Scene 33). Both died soon afterward, and during Mass their nurse saw how they rose up out of their graves and fled from the church. Benedict promptly administered the host to the errant souls, thereby luring them back into the bosom of the community.

The composition of this scene is clearly indebted to Pinturicchio’s cycle in the Piccolomini Library in Siena. The shape of the interior and arrangement of the picture space are borrowed from the scene of Enea Silvio Piccolomini’s coronation as Pius II, whereas the grouping of figures, especially that of the ones seen from the back in the foreground, recall the scene in which Piccolomini is elevated to the rank of cardinal.

Scene 3 of the cycle on the life of St Benedict depicts Benedict repairing a broken colander through prayer.

The painter made certain he would be forever associated with the cycle by including the prominent self-portrait in the scene of the colander miracle.

There is no question but that Sodoma dominates the Monteoliveto cloister cycle, if only in terms of his greater number of pictures. The painter made certain he would be forever associated with the cycle by including the prominent self-portrait in the scene of the colander miracle (Scene 3). His depiction of himself dressed in an elegant costume with long wavy hair, turning his back on the crucial event of the scene in his eagerness to make eye contact with the viewer, goes a long way toward confirming Vasari’s description of him as an impossible eccentric.

In his biography of Sodoma, Vasari relates that the splendid clothes the painter wears here had belonged to a nobleman, who on entering the monastery left them with the prior. The prior, in turn, presented to Sodoma. The painter promptly donned the showy costume and painted the portrait by looking at himself in a mirror - not forgetting to include his two pet badgers, a chicken and a tame raven.

The picture shows the landscape detail of Scene 4 of the cycle which depicts the monk Romanus dressing Benedict in the robe of a hermit.

Scene 5 of the cycle on the life of St Benedict depicts the devil destroying the little bell with which the monk Romanus announces prayers and meals to Benedict who is living in a cave near Subiaco.

Scene 6 of the cycle on the life of St Benedict depicts that inspired by Christ, a priest shares his Easter meal with Benedict.

In some of his scenes (e.g. in Scene 30) Sodoma illustrates successive phases of a single event. That this technique might be used to depict moment-by-moment developments within a particular episode is vividly illustrated by Scene 6, which also happens to incorporate a real window in the picture composition. A priest has just finished preparing his Easter dinner. We see him taking it out of the oven in the background. Suddenly Christ appears to him in a vision - he gestures to him from a medallion above the window - urging him to share his dinner with the hermit Benedict. In the foreground to the right the priest recoils from the vision, shading his eyes with his hand. Finally, he appears again on the left, seated across from Benedict at a makeshift stone table as a serving boy waits on them.

Scene 7 of the cycle on the life of St Benedict depicts Benedict instructing the peasants of the vicinity who visit his cave, in the precepts of Christianity.

Several scenes of the cycle deal with the conversion and instruction of those with whom the monks come in contact (e.g. Scene 7).

Sodoma’s characterization of types is very impressive. The simple peasants Benedict attempts to interest in the faith just outside his cave are delightfully exaggerated (Scene 7). One is afflicted with goiter, another appears to be a halfwit, and two are dressed in parodies of classical costume; the handsome shepherd on the right leans on his crook in the pose of a famous antique statue, the so-called Pothos.

The picture shows the landscape detail of Scene 8 of the cycle which depicts as Benedict is tempted by impure thought, but resists them.

Among the subjects of the cycle there are the temptations of the flesh to which the founder was exposed both as a solitary hermit and together with his fellow monks.

Sodoma painted two small-format wall paintings in the passage leading from the cloister into the onetime chapter house in Monteoliveto Maggiore. In their form and subject matter - Christ Carrying the Cross and the Man of Sorrows - these are classic votive images, and that they were intended as such is underscored by the inscriptions that accompany them.

The Pietà by Sodoma was celebrated in the 17th century as the work of Leonardo, and current criticism still sees echoes of Leonardo in his chiaroscuro atmospheres and harmonious rhythms.

The painting is signed, inscribed and dated on a cartellino lower right: EX PIETATE/BER.DE SYE/ SODONA EQVES/FACIEBAT SEN/MDXXXIII. Sodoma identifies himself as knight (EQVES), a title conferred on him by Pope Leo X some time between 1513 and 1517. The present painting dates from the 1530s, at a time that Sodoma was at the height of his career, when he was receiving numerous important public commissions such as those for the Palazzo Pubblico and for the Spanish Chapel in the church of Santo Spirito in Siena. This Pietà, like other altarpieces by Sodoma painted during the fourth decade of the 16th century, is characterised by a dense composition and monumental figure style.

The artist was trained in Milan, where he became a close follower of Leonardo. His style combines influences from Leonardo, Fra Bartolommeo, and Raphael. Most of his career was spent in Siena.

The wealth of narrative detail, histrionic action, and crowded composition are typical Mannerist tendencies of the mid-sixteenth century.

It is one of the most celebrated works of Sodoma and especially for the figure of the Saint. The influence of Leonardo is very evident. The composition of the figure in space is very felicitous and the fantastic landscape is worthy of note. There is an other painting on the back (The Virgin between Sts. Roch and Sigismund) which shows less qualities.

In the Cappella di Santa Caterina of the Sienese church of San Domenico, Sodoma’s mural paintings dominate the decoration. Only the left-hand wall was completed by Sodoma. The prospect shows Catherine saving the soul of Niccolò di Tuldo: she converts the conspirator before his execution; when the head of the dead man is presented to the people, she sees his soul floating into heaven. Sodoma uses particular means to bring us close to the scene. The lower balustrade is wide open; steps seem to lead out of the chapel to the site of the execution.

The abbey of Monteoliveto Maggiore which stands atop a spur of the Crete Senese, the barren, rocky country southeast of Siena, is one of the most important and best preserved monastic complexes in southern Tuscany. It was founded by the prominent and well-to-do legal scholar Giovanni Tolomei (1272-1348), who resigned his post as podestà of Siena and renounced his worldly interests to take up the life of a hermit. He was joined by two other men from Siena, Ambrogio Piccolomini and Patrizio Patrizi. The three built themselves shelters in this hostile landscape and over the years still others were attracted to the fledgling ascetic community. On March 26, 1319, the Bishop of Arezzo, Guido Tarlati, confirmed the congregation as a new religious order.

The painting of the confirmation of the Olivetan rule in the monastery of Sant’Anna in Camprena, near Pienza, which was founded by monks from Monteoliveto in 1324, is part of a cycle painted by Sodoma in the refectory in 1503-04. In this scene one can see Tolomei, by now known as Bernardo, kneeling before the bishop on his throne in an open loggia, the rule in his hand.

Lucretia, the virtuous wife of Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus, committed suicide, as she could not endure the shame of being raped by Sextus Tarquinius, as Livy related. This deed secured the legendary Roman lady a place in the series of exemplary females that in European painting, particularly in court circles, were depicted as examples of virtue.

The painting possibly is identical with the picture which according to Vasari was painted in 1513 for Pope Leo X on the occasion of his election. The new Pope prior to his elevation, was Giovanni de Medici, the son of Lorenzo. As compensation Leo X awarded a knighthood to the painter.

The painting shows overt, rather than subtle, eroticism.

The abbey of Monteoliveto Maggiore which stands atop a spur of the Crete Senese, the barren, rocky country southeast of Siena, is one of the most important and best preserved monastic complexes in southern Tuscany. It was founded by the prominent and well-to-do legal scholar Giovanni Tolomei (1272-1348), who resigned his post as podestà of Siena and renounced his worldly interests to take up the life of a hermit. He was joined by two other men from Siena, Ambrogio Piccolomini and Patrizio Patrizi. The three built themselves shelters in this hostile landscape and over the years still others were attracted to the fledgling ascetic community. On March 26, 1319, the Bishop of Arezzo, Guido Tarlati, confirmed the congregation as a new religious order.

The abbey is constructed entirely of brick, and comprises a jumble of structures linked by three inner courtyards, or cloisters, of different sizes and with different functions. The Great Cloister (Chiostro Grande) around which the more important communal spaces are disposed was constructed in stages between 1426 and 1443. The cloister was frescoed by Luca Signorelli with nine scenes on the west side (1497-99) and Sodoma with twenty-eight scenes (1505-08 and after 1513). The fresco cycle is comprised of thirty-six Scenes from the Life of St Benedict; St Benedict Presenting the Rule to the Olivetans; Man of Sorrow; Christ Carrying the Cross.

According to the documents the painters worked in a direction contrary to the chronological narrative sequence. This implies that a comprehensive plan for the cycle was being followed from the start. This master plan saw to it that the scenes with the greatest number of figures fell in the corner bays where they could be appreciated from a greater distance.

The life of St Benedict is considered as a reflection and ideal of the monastic life. The exemplary nature of the scenes presented in the cloister at Monteoliveto Maggiore gives the impression that they were deliberately selected for their bearing on life within the monastery. Virtually all of the community’s activities and concerns are reflected in them. The ultimate textual source for the Benedict cycle was the biography written by Gregory the Great in about 593-94, which tells the story of the important monastic founder in thirty-eight chapter.

The preparatory cartoon for this painting has been identified in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich. Formerly part of the Ricciarelli collection in Volterra, the painting belongs to the period of il Sodoma’s sojourn in that city and is dated to 1539-40. Stylistically it is close to other late works of Sodoma, in particular the Madonna and Child with Saints in the collegiate church at Sinalunga.

In 1518 a new project brought together three Sienese painters, Sodoma, Beccafumi and Girolamo del Pacchia. The new project was a scheme of fresco paintings to embellish the interior of a meeting room belonging to one of the city’s oldest confraternities - the Confraternity of Santa Maria degli Angeli della Veste Nera (Saint Mary of the Angels and of the Black Robes). Founded in honour of the Virgin after 1450 the confraternity also adopted Bernardino as one of their saints, adding his name to the confraternity’s title. For this reason the room that painters decorated is now known as the Oratory of San Bernardino. Designed as a place where the members of the confraternity would meet to conduct both their collective devotions and their administrative business, the Oratory of San Bernardino offers a rare example of an early sixteenth-century decorative ensemble that has survived in almost its original form.

On the side walls of the room there is a series of large-scale fresco paintings separated from one another by pilasters decorated with candelabra motifs. The paintings consist of narrative scenes from the life of the Virgin. Sodoma had been assigned the paintings of the Presentation of the Virgin and the Coronation.

In his painting of the Presentation, Sodoma introduced many of the lavishly attired bystanders that are characteristic of his Monteoliveto frescoes. The architectural setting for the scene, however, appears to have been influenced by Raphael’s fresco of the Expulsion of Heliodorus (1512) in the Stanza d’Eliodoro in the Vatican. The paintings depicts two sets of marble colonnades seen in sharp recession, thus providing a framework and focus for an important event taking place at some distance from the spectator. In the case of the confraternity painting, this is the crucial encounter between the young child and the High Priest at the high altar, which forms the focal point of the story of the Virgin’s presentation in the Temple.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 22 minutes):

Johann Sebastian Bach: Cantata, BWV 82

This painting is variously dated to between 1501 and 1515 and to 1506-07 on account of the stylistic similarities to other works of the artist from this same moment. The subject of the painting is based on Plutarch’s narrative of the rape of the Sabine women. The painting was once, however, identified as the Story of Rhea Silvia.

The complex iconography treats the narrative of abduction through the selection of the moment when Ersilia is brought to Romulus, to whom she is destined to be paired. The statue of Neptune, visible in the background, situates the precise narrative moment. Many copies have been made of this composition.

The painting is part of the predella of the altarpiece representing the Deposition (Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena). Two other panels of the predella, The Taking of Christ and The Flagellation of Christ is also in the Budapest Museum.

Chigi’s bedchamber was adjacent to the banquet hall, and he had Sodoma decorate two of its wall, probably in conjunction with the decoration of the hall. The surfaces of the walls open up onto a narrative with large-scale figures, as if inviting visitors to enter. In the painting on the wall to the right, the women of Darius’s family approach the Macedonian ruler. Sisigambis, the mother of the defeated Persian ruler, initially mistook Hephaistion for Alexander, but the true ruler inclines graciously toward her. The painter revels in his depiction of female grace, pushing the female bodies close together before Alexander and the viewer. The forms on the left also repeat the triad of goddesses, Venus, Ceres, and Juno from Raphael’s spandrel in the Loggia di Psiche. The smithy scene along the base of the wall alludes to the love themes and to the fireplace.

In the Cappella di Santa Caterina of the Sienese church of San Domenico, Sodoma’s mural paintings dominate the decoration. The chapel was built in the late fifteenth century to house the relic of St Catherine’s head in a marble tabernacle. Sodoma transformed the space to appear as if it were an open loggia resting on piers. The real altar is continued to the side as a painted balustrade, above which, in a wide opening on the left Catherine is seen fainting and, on the right, in ecstasy.

Only the left-hand wall showing Catherine saving the soul of Niccolò di Tuldo was completed by Sodoma. Here the artist uses particular means to bring us close to the scene: the lower balustrade is wide open; steps seem to lead out of the chapel to the site of the execution.

Frescoes in the oratories of brotherhoods are found throughout Italy. In 1516 to 1518 the Sienese brotherhood of Mary and Bernardino commissioned Girolamo del Pacchia, Sodoma, and Domenico Beccafumi to fresco the walls of their oratory with a cycle on the life of Mary, The artists painted two stories each: Pacchia, the Birth of Mary and the Annunciation; Sodoma, the Presentation of the Virgin and the Coronation of Mary; and Beccafumi, the Betrothal of Mary and the Death of the Virgin. The missing scenes on the right-hand longitudinal wall, the Visitation and the Assumption of the Virgin were not painted by Sodoma until the late 1520s, and Baccafumi’s altarpiece still later, between 1535 and 1537. The cycle begins on the left wall (The Birth of Mary to THe Betrothal of Mary), and continues above the altar wall (Annunciation) and the right longitudinal wall (Visitation to Assumption of the Virgin) through the second of the short walls (The Coronation of Mary). In addition to the stories from the life of Mary, there are four frescoed standing figures of Franciscan saints in the corners of the longitudinal walls.

This fresco in the bedroom of Villa Farnesina was based on a Raphaelesque drawing that may have followed suggestions from Raphael himself.

Chigi’s bedchamber was adjacent to the banquet hall, and he had Sodoma decorate two of its wall, probably in conjunction with the decoration of the hall. The surfaces of the walls open up onto a narrative with large-scale figures, as if inviting visitors to enter. The main painting shows the wedding of Alexander the Great and Roxane. The composition is based on an ekphrasis (graphic description of a visual work of art). Lucian described a painting by the ancient master Aetion: Alexander handing the crown to Roxane in their wedding chamber. The princess is sitting on the bed, with Hephaistion and the god of marriage, Hymen, standing to the side; cupids are playing with the ruler’s weapons and armor. Sodoma followed the description very precisely, he tried to recreate the ancient painting. However, the stage on which the figures are placed and their distribution in the composition follow a contemporary model: Raphael’s frescoes in the Stanze, inspired above all by the Fire in the Borgo.

Alexander is handing the crown to Roxane in their wedding chamber. The princess is sitting on the bed; cupids are playing with the ruler’s weapons and armor.