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The painting is signed, inscribed and dated on a cartellino lower right: EX PIETATE/BER.DE SYE/ SODONA EQVES/FACIEBAT SEN/MDXXXIII. Sodoma identifies himself as knight (EQVES), a title conferred on him by Pope Leo X some time between 1513 and 1517. The present painting dates from the 1530s, at a time that Sodoma was at the height of his career, when he was receiving numerous important public commissions such as those for the Palazzo Pubblico and for the Spanish Chapel in the church of Santo Spirito in Siena. This Pietà, like other altarpieces by Sodoma painted during the fourth decade of the 16th century, is characterised by a dense composition and monumental figure style.
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