1477-1549
Il Sodoma (originally Giovanni Antonio Bazzi) was an Italian painter, whose work extended from the High Renaissance to the Mannerist styles. He was active around Siena, where he settled in 1501. Vasari, who disliked him, explains the origin of his nickname – ‘the sodomite’ – in this fashion: ‘His manner of life was licentious and dishonourable, and as he always boys and beardless youths about him of whom he was inordinately fond, this earned him the nickname of Sodoma; but instead of feeling shame, he gloried in it, writing stanzas and verses on it, singing them to the accompaniment of the lute.’
He was also married with three children. He signed his own paintings ‘Sodoma’
He painted many frescoes and portraits. His fresco of the Marriage of Alexander and Roxane (1516-17), painted for the Sienese banker Agostino Chigi, is often cited as his finest work. He wasn’t among the Raffaelos and Michaelangelos of this world, but he had a fine eye for harmony, line and perspective.