Pietà

When the writer Jacomo Manilli described the Borghese villa in 1650, he hedged over this panel. Some, he said, thought the Pietà was by Leonardo, others by Sodoma. By the family inventory of 1693 the doubt had gone, and it was listed as Leonardo's. It was only in 1891 that the connoisseur Gustavo Frizzoni argued for Sodoma, and scholars have agreed ever since. What they have never settled is the date. The museum's catalogue records no year. Most writers see it as a work of his maturity, even of his last years, though a few earlier critics placed it in the 1520s. The Virgin holds her son's body at the foot of the cross, lit against heavy shadow, the crown of thorns still on his head. Behind them the landscape is dark, with thin, spiny trees.