Pietà

Bazzi Giovanni Antonio called Sodoma

(Vercelli 1477 - Siena 1549)

The painting was already in the collection by the middle of the seventeenth century, recorded as a work by Leonardo da Vinci or Sodoma. The latter was then definitively accepted as the author. The Pietà belongs to the late output of the artist. The intense chiaroscuro of the figures and the dark landscape in the background convey a strong sense of melancholy.

Object details

Commentary

Although Giacomo Manilli, in 1650, already had doubts about its attribution (‘the other painting of the Pietà is considered by some, to be by Lionardo; and by others, by Sodoma’: 1650, p. 64), in the Borghese inventory of 1693 it was deemed to be the work of Leonardo da Vinci. The doubt was dispelled by Frizzoni who argued in favour of the painter from Vercelli, Sodoma (1891, p. 144), a view endorsed by Morelli (1897, p. 147) and then definitively accepted by the critics. The scene conveys immense suffering: at the foot of the cross, the Virgin holds the body of her Son on her lap, while in the background is a glimpse of landscape, with ‘thorny’ trees, also imbued with a profound sense of drama and sorrow. The livid colours contribute to creating an image of extreme emotional involvement, genuine participation in Christ's death.

While the attribution is not so problematic, the dating is more complex: excluding Meyer, Gielly and De Rinaldis, who identified a style that the painter had experimented with in the 1720s, critics tend to consider it ‘among the works of Sodoma's mature output’ (Morelli 1897, p. 147)  –thus far from those works where ‘the shadows are light and bright’ – and generally a very late work (Priuli Bon, Carli, Radini Tedeschi).

Gabriele De Melis