Some Early Works by Girolamo Siciolante da Sermoneta

Abstract

Girolamo Siciolante has been called a rustic, an eclectic, a Mannerist. In varying degrees, each of these epithets contains some truth, but all are misleading and are tangential to the character and intentions of the artist. For although it cannot be denied that Siciolante was a painter with serious limitations, he is, nevertheless, a figure of considerable interest, and his work helped to shape certain significant trends in mid-sixteenth century Roman painting that generally have been neglected by historians. Indeed, on the whole, our knowledge of Roman painting during the 1540's and 1550's is remarkably incomplete and inaccurate. Siciolante is only one victim of our misconceptions. If a great many errors of attribution and chonology have been committed and perpetuated in the literature on Siciolante, this state of confusion has arisen because none of the personalities active in Rome at the time (with the exception of Michelangelo) has yet been clearly distinguished or defined.