The early Milanese paintings of Il Sodoma,…
1502 CE
The early Milanese paintings of Il Sodoma, born Giovanni Antonio Bazzi, reflect the style of Leonardo da Vinci, an acknowledged contemporary master.
By 1501, when Sodoma moved to Siena, his frescoes display the influence of such Central Italian painters as Pintoricchio, Luca Signorelli, and Perugino.
Along with Pinturicchio, Sodoma is one of the first to practice in Siena the style of the High Renaissance.
His first important works are seventeen frescoes in the Benedictine monastery of Monte Oliveto Maggiore, on the road from Siena to Rome, illustrating the life of St Benedict in continuation of the series that Luca Signorelli had begun in 1498.
Gaining fluency in the prevailing popular style of Pinturicchio, Sodoma completes the set in 1502 and includes a self-portrait with badgers