Sodoma's Collection of Antiques

Extract

While the painter Sodoma was lying ill at Florence, in 1529, his pupil, Girolamo Magagni, nefariously removed from his master's studio a number of objects, a list of which is set forth in a document formerly in the Archivio Notarile at Siena, but now lost. The document, which is an acknowledgment of the return of these objects, was printed by Milanesi, and is repeated by Mr. R. H. H. Cust in his exhaustive work on Sodoma. But as it is nevertheless likely to escape the notice of the classical archaeologist, it seems worth while to extract from the list the descriptions of those objects which were certainly, or may possibly have been antiques. It is perhaps incorrect to speak of the objects as a collection; they were rather a few odd pieces picked up as useful models by a painter who owed more of the qualities of his style than is generally recognized to his appreciation of antique sculpture.