S O D O M A (Giovanni Antonio Bazzi)
1477-154 9
46 Christ Carrying the Cross*
The Resurrection
v
Pen and brown ink, white gouache heightening, and
black chalk on brownish paper (recto); brush and brown
ink and white gouache heightening (verso); H: 21.5 cm
(8^7 /i6Ín.); W: i8.8cm(7^3 /8Ín.)
86.GA. 2
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: (Verso) collection mark of
Alfredo Viggiano (L. icia).
PROVENANCE: Alfredo Viggiano, Venice; sale, Sothe-
by's, New York, January 16, 1985, lot 28; art market,
Boston.
EXHIBITIONS: None.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: G. Goldner, "A New Drawing by So-
doma," Burlington Magazine 127, no. 992 (November
1985), pp. 775-76; A. Petrioli Tofani and G. Smith,
Sixteenth-Century Tuscan Drawings from the Ujfizi, exh.
cat. (Detroit Institute of Arts, 1988), p. 28, under no. 13.
THE ATTRIBUTION OF THIS SHEET IS DUE TO P. POUN-
cey. The recto is drawn in a highly elaborate technique,
with painterly brush effects and considerable white
heightening. The expressive character of the scene cen-
ters around the contrast between the impassive image of
Christ and the harshness of the soldier at the right. The
facial types on the recto are paralleled in Sodoma's
painted work throughout his career (Goldner 1985).
The verso is drawn in a more calm, classical manner
with a more linear technique. It was made as a prepara-
tory study for the Resurrection, a fresco Sodoma painted
in the Palazzo Pubblico, Siena, in 1535 (ibid.). Drawing
and fresco correspond in the proportions and anatomical
rendering of Christ, in his depiction with one foot inside
the tomb, and in the drapery motifs. They also differ in
several details, but this—along with the pentimenti in the
drawing—is to be expected in a design that probably rep-
resents a relatively early stage in the evolution of the
composition. Based on the date of the fresco, the sheet
probably can be placed circa 1535.Il 8 ITALIAN SCHOOL • SODOMA