The wedding of Alexander the Great and Roxane
Il Sodoma·1519
Historical Context
Il Sodoma painted the Wedding of Alexander the Great and Roxane around 1519 as a fresco in the Villa Farnesina in Rome. The villa, built for the Sienese banker Agostino Chigi, was one of the great artistic projects of the Roman Renaissance, with decorations by Raphael, Sebastiano del Piombo, Baldassare Peruzzi, and Sodoma. The tempera medium required careful preparation on a gessoed panel and a disciplined layering technique that produced precise, durable surfaces suited to the intricate detail expected of devotional painting.
Technical Analysis
The fresco demonstrates Sodoma's ability to work on a monumental scale with classical subject matter, presenting the marriage scene with the Leonardesque grace and warm coloring that made his contribution to the Farnesina a masterpiece of Renaissance decorative painting.
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