Giovanni Antonio Bazzi

GIOVANNI ANTONIO BAZZI "Il Sodoma" (Vercello, 1477- Siena 1549).
"Ecce homo".
Oil on panel. Cradled.
Presents inscriptions and labels on the back.
It has a restored 16th century frame.
Measurements: 89 x 71 cm; 104 x 85 cm (frame).
The author of this devotional work conceives the theme of Ecce Homo, through the use of a simple and clear composition with the presence of Christ in the center flanked on the sides being besieged by the soldier and by a crowd that gathers in the background. The author of the work seeks a certain veracity in conceiving the image. Visually dominates the light treatment, very contrasted and effective, based on a spotlight that falls directly on the figure of Christ, creating expressive effects of chiaroscuro and leaving the rest in semi-darkness, a feature that further enhances the physical presence of the character. The chromatism also derives directly from baroque models and is therefore based on a restricted and warm palette, enormously nuanced, of ochre, earthy and carmine tones. As for the technical quality, it is evident the skill with which the author resolves details such as the hair, the beard of Christ or the flashing of both the armor in the foreground and those in the background. This characteristic of the Flemish school harmonizes with an evident influence of the Italian school that is evident in the anatomical treatment of the figure of Christ, in which the canon is slightly elongated, thus introducing in the scene a taste of mannerist character. Aesthetically the work has great similarities with the painting by Bazzi dedicated to the same subject that is in the collection of the Metropolitan of New York, in fact the figure on the left has the same gesture and Pilate in this painting is in the background has the same face as the work of the MET. Although the composition and the face of Christ are more similar to the painting in the Palazzo Uffizi.
Il Sodoma is the name by which the Italian Renaissance painter Giovanni Antonio Bazzi is known. His first teacher was the "archaic" Martino Spanzotti and he was also a pupil of the painter Giovenone. After acquiring the strong coloring and other distinctive stylistic features of the Lombard school and - although it is not recorded that he traveled to Milan. traveled to Siena before 1503, perhaps at the behest of agents of the Spannocchi family, and began with fresco cycles. Along with Pinturicchio, Sodoma was one of the first to practice the High Renaissance style in Siena. His first important works were the frescoes in the Benedictine monastery of Monte Oliveto Maggiore. Sodoma was invited to Rome in 1508 by the famous Sienese merchant Agostino Chigi and there he was hired by Pope Julius II at the Stanza della Segnatura in the Vatican. He executed two large compositions and several ornaments and grotesques. Before October 1510 he was in Siena, where he painted the exterior of the Palazzo Chigi. Called back to Rome by Chigi, at the Villa Chigi (now Villa Farnesina), working with Baldassarre Peruzzi, Sodoma painted subjects from the life of Alexander the Great. Bazzi returned to Siena and later sought work in Pisa, Volterra and Lucca, returning to Siena from Lucca shortly before his death on February 14, 1549.