Man of Sorrows

This belongs to a very old type called the Man of Sorrows. There is no scene here, no episode from the Passion, only Christ himself, shown half length and displaying his wounds, made to be prayed in front of at close range. Images like this hung in a private room or a small chapel, meant for one person's silent attention rather than a congregation. Sodoma painted it around 1500, early in his career. He had come south from Vercelli in Piedmont, where painters worked in the wake of Leonardo, and that background shows in the handling: the shadows melt softly into the skin instead of being drawn as hard edges.