UNKNOWN PERIOD, AND RETURN TO SIENA
After the commencement of the San Bernardino frescoes Sodoma
disappeared from Tuscany, and an amount of uncertainty has gathered
round his doings during the next seven years. There are no more
documents concerning him to be found at Siena till 1525, and the
political condition of the city was just then very unfavourable to
artistic work.
Pandolfo Petrucci, the some-time governor, had died in 1512, and been
interred with princely pomp and honour; but although under his rule
Siena had enjoyed much prosperity and a certain amount of unity between
the rival factions, both Pandolfo and his successor lacked the personal
qualities that might have founded a dynasty. His son, Borghese, seceded
after three years, and the ambitious cardinal-cousin, Raffaello, seized
the reins of government. It was during his ascendancy that Sodoma
vanished from Siena.
It is probable that he went straight to Mantua, for a letter addressed
to the Marchese Francesco Gonzaga in May 1518, speaks of the painter’s
intention to shortly visit him. This letter was found not long ago
among the Mantuan Archives, by Signor Guiseppe Campori, and if Sodoma
carried out the intention which he expressed therein, he probably
spent the summer in the Ducal House of the Gonzaga. On the same
day (May 3rd) he wrote another letter to Alfonzo d’Este, Duke of
Ferrara, suggesting that he should visit him at Ferrara, bringing
with him a certain panel which he had been commissioned to paint by
the duke’s ambassador--the “St. George and the Dragon,” now belonging
to Sir Francis Cook. This letter was found at Modena among the Este
Archives, by Cav. Adolfo Venturi, and there is no reason to doubt
that the visit was paid. There is also an entry among the documents
at Reggio d’Emilia, which mentions one Giovanni Antonio de’ Bazzi of
Parma, a painter, and for the moment citizen of Reggio,[34] who acted
as witness to two deeds drawn up in the November of that year. It is
certainly true that the name of Bazzi was a not uncommon one in Parma,
and we are at a loss to understand why Sodoma should describe himself
as a Parmesan when he had for so long enjoyed the civic rights and
privileges of Siena.
He may have stayed a little time in Parma before proceeding to Reggio,
thus giving rise to a misapprehension, or he may deliberately, for
prudential reasons, have wished to conceal his identity.
Both Herr Jansen and Milanesi believe that the artist here referred to
was our Siennese; but Frizzoni is of opinion that there may have been
another less known and inferior painter of the some name.
Morelli believes that Sodoma now passed into Lombardy, and there
renewed his connection with the school of Leonardo, perfecting
himself in the manner towards which he had always shown so strong
a predilection. But we are wanting in documents to prove his actual
presence in Milan, and the works which have been attributed to him
within late years are not so well-authenticated as to be clear proofs
of his presence there.
One of these works which bears a strong resemblance to his style, is a
fresco on the wall of one of the rooms of the Villa Melzi at Vaprio,
about which the opinion of critics is still largely divided. This is a
gigantic group, more than life-size, and terribly out of proportion.
The Virgin is only portrayed down to the waist, the face is oval, with
the long nose, thin, half-smiling lips, and almond eyes of the school,
the hair waved crisply over brow and neck. The head is turned to the
right, and the eyes downcast. The Infant Christ is apparently seated on
the Virgin’s left arm, the little face is curiously exaggerated, almost
a caricature, with features puffed and grotesque, and the Virgin’s
right hand is over-large and shapeless.
To which of the Lombard masters this should be assigned is a matter
difficult to decide. Rio[35] and Mündler, as well as Amoretti, thought
it a genuine Leonardo, done in return for Melzi’s hospitality, but this
is obviously impossible, for Leonardo is never known to have worked in
“buon fresco.” Milanesi believed it to be more probably by Francesco
Melzi himself, the friend and pupil of Leonardo, and in this opinion
he is followed by some recent German critics. Morelli, however,
attributed it unhesitatingly to Sodoma, “executed probably between
1518 and 1521, during his stay in Lombardy.” (_The Borghese and Doria
Pamphili Galleries_, p. 157.)
To this unknown period are assigned a number of small panels and
canvases which are scattered about over North Italy in private
collections. These severally bear a marked affinity to the Lombard
school, but in the round freedom of their drawing and a certain
largeness, almost carelessness of design, they all differ from the
work attributed to the other Milanese masters. They are evidently the
production of a man trained in the Lombard School, but who had been
subjected to southern influences, and was haunted by a memory of the
Tuscan manner.
Signor Frizzoni has a penitent Magdalen, in neutral tints, with
slightly parted lips and flowing hair. A white chemise and a white vase
of ointment in her hand form the only contrast to the flesh-tints. This
little picture is very interesting, for it may be regarded either as an
experiment on Sodoma’s part in the fuller treatment of light and shade,
or else as being indicative of his habitual manner of painting easel
pictures. If the latter, it would show him to be completely Leonardo’s
pupil, whose large “Adoration of the Magi” which hangs in the Uffizi is
most probably a prepared ground, a study in values which was to have
been painted over in oil.
Most of the panels of the Lombard school have a certain brilliancy in
the light flesh-tints and an almost exaggerated modelling, which might
lead to the supposition that they were underpainted, and Sodoma’s
own panels have this luminosity in their shadows to a marked degree.
Another monochrome is in the possession of the heirs of the late Signor
Ginoulhiac of Milan. In this the Virgin has delicately drawn features,
the eyes rather longer and narrower and the eyelids less deep than
is usual with him, Sodoma generally giving a pronounced fulness of
eyeball to his youthful figures. Her light muslin sleeves gathered
at the wrist, and the dark drapery over head and shoulders fastened
by a modern brooch suggest the idea that it may have been painted
as a portrait and the halo which converted it into a Madonna added
afterwards. The Child’s deep-set eyes and low cranium also look as if
it had been a study from life.
In 1525 Sodoma was back again in Siena, painting for the city guilds,
which continued to give him work in spite of the condition of grave
political disturbance.
Cardinal Raffaello Petrucci died in 1522; he was succeeded by
Francesco, who soon gave place to Fabio, the youngest of Pandolfo’s
sons. Fabio was driven out by the populace; and, in 1525, the city,
torn by rival factions, not strong enough to govern herself, nor
willing, after the Petrucci tyranny, to elect one man as her leader,
placed herself under the protection of the new Emperor Charles V. She
created, for the management of local affairs, a magistracy of “ten
guardians of the liberty of the State,” uniting the different Monti,
or guilds under one, which consisted of that of the reigning nobles.
The city, now freed from the irksome rule, which nevertheless had
maintained order and kept the smaller factions from fighting, now gave
herself over to a renewal of ancient rivalries, not even quelled when
the Emperor came in person ten years later.
Notwithstanding, or perhaps in consequence of this political unrest,
the Siennese experienced a revival of religious fervour, and, keen in
their old belief that the town was under the special protection of the
Virgin, began to adorn the city gates and the walls of public buildings
with her image. To these years belong some of Sodoma’s finest works,
the chapel of St. Catherine in San Domenico, the colossal figures of
St. Ansano and St. Victor in the Palazzo Pubblico, and the beautiful
St. Sebastian of the Florence Gallery.
It was in 1525, when once more back in Siena, that Sodoma painted
the second of his masterpieces, the “Standard with the Martyrdom
of Saint Sebastian.” It was done for a confraternity--that of St.
Sebastian in Camollia--during the priorate of Matteo Fraschini, and
was carried through the city at the head of a procession during times
of pestilence. The contract was completed on the 3rd May 1525, and he
was to receive twenty ducats for it, but the painter was apparently
not satisfied with this agreement, and the matter was submitted to a
certain barber, Antonio di Pasquino, who was evidently regarded as
a keen judge of the fine arts, for he accounted the finished work
to be worth more than the twenty ducats stated in the contract. The
_Signoria_, therefore, quite willing to abide by the barber’s decision,
paid him another six, and the Chapter, deliberating on the work, which
they deemed carefully and diligently done, determined to give him yet
another four ducats.
To this Sodoma subscribed: “Io mise Giovane Antonio sopradeto so
’contento a quanto di sopra si contiene, e per fede ò scritto de mano
propria.”[36] (“I, the above-named Giovanni Antonio, am content with
what is contained above, and in testimony have written with my own
hand.”)
[Illustration:
_Brogi photo_ _Uffizi Gallery, Florence_
HEAD OF ST. SEBASTIAN]
The subject was one with which he was in entire sympathy, and he gave
time and enthusiasm to the drawing of the noble figure, with its
severe, classical lines, and its uplifted, spiritual face.
Edward Schurè wrote of it: “Le beau corps de l’adolescent, lié contre
un arbre est percé de flêches, couvert de gouttes de sang et tout
frémissant de douleur. Mais sur son visage et dans son regard tourné
vers le ciel, se joue, à travers la souffrance, un ravissement céleste.
L’état d’âme qui se reflête sur ce visage est semblable à celui qui
produisent les chœurs de Palestrina.”[37] (“The beautiful form of the
young man, bound to a tree, is pierced with arrows, covered with drops
of blood, and quivering with pain. But on his face and in his upturned
glance there plays, through all the suffering, a heavenly rapture. The
state of mind reflected on his face is akin to that produced by the
choruses of Palestrina.”)
J. A. Symonds’ appreciation is more profound. “Sodoma’s ‘St.
Sebastian,’” he wrote, in his “Renaissance in Italy,” vol. iii.,
“notwithstanding its wan and faded colouring, is still the very best
that has been painted. Suffering, refined and spiritual, without a
contortion or a spasm, could not be presented in a form of more
surpassing loveliness. This is a truly demonic picture in the
fascination it exercises and the memory it leaves upon the mind. Part
of its remarkable charm may be due to the bold thought of combining the
beauty of a Greek Hylas with the Christian sentiment of martyrdom. Only
the Renaissance could have produced a hybrid so successful, because
so deeply felt.” The “St. Sebastian” portion is in low tones, a cold
landscape almost in monochrome, the one warm element being the brown
shadows in the tree trunk. The angel has an indigo robe, and brings
with him a haze of lemon-yellow light as he descends from heaven with
the martyr’s crown. The flesh-tints of the saint himself are also cold,
the whole picture owes very little of its effect to colour, and its
beauty lies in the sculpturesque treatment of form, and the immense
feeling of atmosphere.
On the back of this picture is painted another--the Madonna seated upon
a cloud, while below her are St. Roch, St. Sigismund of Hungary, and
six white-robed brothers of the Order, all kneeling with uplifted eyes.
The greater beauty and fame of the “St. Sebastian,” and the fact that
the picture has to be turned round in order to see this Madonna, has
prevented it receiving the attention it deserves, being, as it is, one
of the most excellent examples of Sodoma’s special technique. That it
lacks the deeper feeling which many of his other pictures possess does
not lessen its value as a particularly characteristic specimen of his
brush-work.
[Illustration:
_Alinari photo_ _Uffizi Gallery, Florence_
THE MADONNA IN GLORY, WITH SAINTS]
It is not easy to understand how this _gonfalone_ or banner could
possibly be the immediate successor of the Vaprio Madonna. Vasari
says that certain merchants of Lucca offered three hundred golden
scudi for it, but the confraternity could not bear the thought of so
beautiful a painting leaving the city, and refused the offer.
In 1525 Sodoma was employed by the company of Santa Croce to paint
three scenes from the Passion in fresco.
Of these three frescoes, the “Calvary,” “Gethsemane,” and “Hades,” the
two latter were, in 1841, sawn away from the walls and transported
to the Siena gallery, and the “Christ bearing the Cross on the
way to Calvary” conveyed to the little chapel of the monastery of
Sant’ Eugenio, about three miles outside Porta San Marco, now Villa
Griccioli. It has been terribly restored, especially the faces of
Christ and St. Veronica. The figure is clothed in red and crowned
with thorns. Simon, bearing the base of the Cross looks mournfully
backward. On the right, kneels St. Veronica, lifting her handkerchief
towards the Saviour, and behind her is a female figure in purple, with
clasped hands, probably the Madonna. A crowd of soldiers, on foot and
horse, fills up the background. Of the two frescoes now lodged in the
gallery at Siena, one represents the Garden of Gethsemane with Our Lord
kneeling alone upon a high mound, clad in a spreading mauve drapery,
while below Him are huddled together the sleeping forms of the three
disciples.
[Illustration:
_Alinari photo_ _Accademia, Siena_
CHRIST IN LIMBO]
In far better preservation, and of far more original worth, is the
companion fresco, giving Our Lord’s descent into Hades. The semi-nude
figure of Eve has all his usual grace and carefulness, and is a
characteristic example of his modelling of legs and feet. The fleshy
knee, with its high lights and rather thick muscles around the ankle,
are to found again in the Berlin “Charity,” and in the various drawings
for the Borghese “Leda.” Eve’s face has a wistfulness which is very
tender and human as she watches the triumphant Victor over death and
corruption lift up to life her young son Abel.
That Sodoma was not above lending his pencil to art of a purely
decorative nature is proved by the existence of sundry little panels
which formed the head and tail-pieces of the open biers in which the
Siennese are still wont to carry their dead. These are generally oval
at the top, the shape of a tombstone, and are painted in oils back and
front with figures of the Madonna and of the dead Christ. There are
several series of these panels in the various churches of Siena, which
are attributed to Sodoma, and belong, we believe, to this middle period
of his residence there.
One of them, begun in 1525, was painted for the company of the Trinita,
and now hangs in the little church of San Donato, sawn into four
panels. It is attributed by different critics to Beccafumi and to Marco
da Siena, and even if it be by Sodoma, as some maintain, is not one of
his best.
A really beautiful set, however, was completed in the following
year for the company of San Giovanni della Morte, a branch of the
brothers of the Misericordia. On the 27th of May 1527, Sodoma was paid
ninety-eight lire for this bier, and Vasari gives it his unqualified
praise in the words, “I think this is the most beautiful (bier), that
one could possibly find.” The four panels are to be found in the
church of San Giovanni della Morte. Another set are on the walls of
the Siena Gallery, the two most successful of these are the Virgin and
Child holding a bird in its hand, with two figures in the background
crowned with vine and shamrock, and that of the half-length form of the
Dead Christ supported by female figures. The third represents another
Virgin and Child with angels, and the fourth has two green-robed
brothers of the Misericordia kneeling in adoration before the jewelled
Cross.
Dr. Richter has in his possession a small panel of this size and form,
representing a dead Christ supported by angels which most probably also
formed part of burial fittings. Dr. Richter dates it about 1530, and
the dark shadows and rather heavy modelling of the angels are quite
compatible with this late date. The Christ is not one of the artist’s
happiest conceptions; he apparently reserved his full attention for
larger and more important works.
Very like it in treatment especially, is the face of Our Lord in the
Pietà in the Borghese Gallery, which has many of the mannerisms of the
later Lombard school. It was formerly roughly attributed to the school
of Leonardo, but Frizzoni was the first to recognize in it the forms of
face, draperies, and landscape peculiar to Sodoma. Morelli agreed with
him in this opinion, and the picture is now catalogued as Sodoma’s.
[Illustration:
_Brogi photo_ _Uffizi Gallery, Florence_
STUDY FOR PIETÀ
(In the Casa Bambagini, Siena)]
Yet that he could, when he chose, portray with dignity and feeling
the helplessness of death is proved by two exquisite drawings in the
Uffizi. The smaller and more beautiful of these is a sketch, in silver
point, of the Christ dead in His Mother’s arms. It is evidently a study
for the Pietà which he painted on the walls of the Casa Bambagini,
Siena. The fresco itself, is not in a good state of preservation,
high up, and covered with glass. The lower portion has peeled very
considerably, and the four or five heads of angels and saints just
discernible, around the Virgin are almost defaced. The Virgin herself
has a mantle of very faded blue and an expression of intense sadness,
the face of Our Lord is singularly majestic and dignified, but perhaps
there is more sentiment in the little sketch which we reproduce.
The other drawing is evidently a study for the picture of the
Trinity which he painted for the Rosary Chapel of San Domenico, a
pencil-drawing washed with sepia and Chinese white. In it the Eternal
Father bears the dead Christ upon His knee, the Dove hovers above them,
and St. Catherine of Siena and several other saints are grouped around.
Siena is rich in local saints of the type dear to the Tuscan
populace--the man or woman of humble, holy life, sprung from their
midst and related to the citizens, and in whom the miraculous element
is subordinate to the human qualities of piety and charitable work. It
was the Beato Bernardo Tolomei, the rich young noble who forsook his
fast companions and founded the parent monastery of the Olivetan order;
or San Bernardino, the Franciscan preacher, awakening a religious
revival through Tuscany, and Umbria; or it was Catherine Benincasa,
the tanner’s daughter, who laboured among the poor and plague-stricken
of her quarter, and by her writing and exhortation was indirectly
instrumental in bringing back the Papal Court from Avignon to Rome.
This character was still a familiar memory to the people of Siena
when Sodoma lived and painted, and far more real and dear to them than
the almost mythical saints Ansano and Victor of the early centuries.
The church of San Domenico had consecrated more than one chapel to her
memory. The first contained a contemporary portrait of the saint by her
friend and _protégé_, Andrea Vanni; the second was now destined to be
decorated with scenes from her life by the hand of Sodoma.
[Illustration:
_Lombardi photo_ _Church of San Domenico, Siena_
THE VISION OF ST. CATHERINE]
He received the commission in 1526, and the earliest and by far the
best work which he did there is the fresco of “The Vision of St.
Catherine,” a painting of such tender sentiment and delicate quality,
as to enjoy a European fame. St. Catherine, perceiving the figure of
the Saviour in the air, and receiving at the same time the marks of the
stigmata in her own person, falls back fainting into the arms of two
of her nuns. The three figures are wholly in white, the cloth tunic
and scapulary of their order, a soft and mellowed white, deepening
to bluish grey in the shadows, and thrown into relief by the dull
browns and yellows of the landscape background. The figure of Christ,
supported by boy-cherubs, which hovers above, was perhaps necessary
to balance the composition, but it is by far the least attractive
portion of the picture; the interest centres wholly in the human group,
the tender faces of the women, the grace of flowing robes and deftly
modelled arms.
Baldassare Peruzzi, Sodoma’s friend and associate, perhaps expressed
the spirit of his contemporaries in his praise of this lovely
fresco, and he has laid stress upon the accurate rendering of the
physical signs of a psychological state, a point to which an eminent
physiologist of our own day, Prof. Angelo Mosso of Turin, has often
called attention.[38] Vasari possessed for many years a little pen and
ink drawing of this fresco, bearing a _cartellino_, high on the gilded
column, with the date 1526. This drawing, now in the Uffizi collection,
is too complete and faithful a copy of the fresco to be a study, and
must have been done by Sodoma or one of his pupils after its completion.
[Illustration:
_Alinari photo_ _Church of San Domenico, Siena_
THE COMMUNION OF ST. CATHERINE]
The companion scene, on the right side of the altar, which portrays
St. Catherine receiving the communion from the hands of an angel, has
all Sodoma’s unrest of composition without his deeper sentiment. Both
the figures of the three kneeling nuns and the Madonna and attendant
angels which, with the Eternal Father, fill the upper part of the
picture, are in Sodoma’s commonplace manner, graceful, it is true,
but not sufficiently individual to merit the attention given to the
other. Siena contains much of his work of this quality, work that is
essentially and pre-eminently decorative, and perhaps does not aim at
the reproduction of strong individual sentiment.
[Illustration:
_Alinari photo_ _Church of San Domenico, Siena_
THE PRAYER OF ST. CATHERINE]
The left wall is covered with a scene from St. Catherine’s missionary
work--the decapitation of the penitent thief, converted by the prayer
of the saint while on his way to execution. The figure of the Captain
of the Guard, dressed like a Roman centurion, has great vigour in the
drawing, and among the crowd of women and soldiers are several heads of
power and interest, but the composition as a whole is too crowded and
densely packed, and has Sodoma’s usual defect of confusion and lack of
symmetry.
Vasari says that he made no studies for this particular fresco, but
painted it straight away, without previous preparation, on to the damp
plaster. This may account very greatly for its unsuccessful grouping
and general sense of oppressiveness.
Over one of the doors in the sacristy is a large framed banner, bearing
the Madonna in pale blue robes, surrounded by a group of little
flying angels who scatter roses into her open tomb. The background is
greenish with a distant view of Siena, a yellow glory envelops the
angel children, several of whom are beautifully drawn and modelled. The
Virgin’s face, however, has suffered from damp.
In the chapel of the Rosary, next to the High Altar, is a much
blackened altar-piece, the study for which we have already mentioned,
as being among the drawings in the Uffizi. The dead Christ lies on the
knees of the Father, who holds a globe in His left hand. On either side
stand two saints, SS. Dominic and Sigismund to the left, St. Catherine
of Siena and a fine nude figure of St. Sebastian to the right. The town
of San Gemignano is faintly visible below. In 1527 Sodoma was chosen to
design the cartoons for a portion of the pavement of the cathedral,[39]
but it is uncertain whether these designs were ever executed.
One of the next documents concerning him is an action which he brought
against his scholar, Magagni, called Giomo del Sodoma, for a theft of
the most flagrant and vulgar kind. The master was at Florence, whether
on business or pleasure we do not know, and, falling ill, was nursed at
the hospital of Sta. Maria Nuova. That the popular painter, a welcome
guest at many palaces, and known to most of the monastic communities,
should be so entirely without friends in the city of the Medici as to
be sent to a public ward of the great hospital is a matter of some
surprise. But we have abundant evidence that Sodoma was not liked in
Florence, and this may largely account for Vasari’s biassed prejudice.
While thus ill, and probably not expected to recover, his enterprising
pupil became possessed of the master’s keys, and, entering his studio,
carried away a number of bronzes and fragments of marble, partly to
Giomo’s own house, partly to that of Niccolò, his brother-in-law, a
sword-maker.
The theft consisted also of boxes of silver coins, medals, portions of
statues, marble feet, heads more or less imperfect, a bronze horse,
a bronze statuette of Apollo, several terra-cottas and a number of
artist’s utensils stored in a hen-house.
Besides these, there was a box containing a printed book, a manuscript
book on necromancy (the eccentric painter perhaps dabbled a little also
in the occult arts) and also _uno libro scripto a mano che tracta di
pictura_.
Whether this were a copy of Leonardo’s famous treatise or an
independent essay of Sodoma’s own we cannot tell. There was likewise
a picture, “less than a yard high, with a Madonna and Child in act of
espousing St. Catherine.” (Unfinished, and not to be traced.)
Needless to say that Sodoma won his case and Magagni was forced to
bring back his stolen goods. Milanesi believes him to have been ill
at Florence in 1527, but Frizzoni observes that the action was only
instituted in July 1529 and speaks of the theft as having taken place
during the “present month” while Sodoma was ill.