SODOMA, Il
(b. 1477, Vercelli, d. 1549, Siena)

Life of St Benedict, Scene 12: Benedict Receives Maurus and Placidus

1505-08
Fresco
Abbazia, Monteoliveto Maggiore

Scene 12 of the cycle on the life of St Benedict depicts Benedict receiving the two Roman boys Maurus and Placidus.

This busy scene shows the definite influence of Pinturicchio's cycle in the Piccolomini Library in Siena. Sodoma's inspiration may well have been the coronation of Pope Pius III, which is similarly crowded with figures. Sodoma had lived in Siena since 1500, and there he absorbed much of Pinturicchio's world of dandified grooms and dense crowds filled with heraldic colour, making it a part of his own stylistic repertoire.




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