The Unrepentant Thief (c. 1530): Art, History and Details

The Unrepentant Thief (c. 1530) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Sodoma (Italian, 1477–1549).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Two thieves were crucified with Christ on Mount Golgotha. One, recognizing Christ's innocence, re-pented his sins, while the other reviled him. In paintings of the crucifixion, this unrepentant thief is depicted at Christ's left. The angle of the cross in this drawing indicates that it is the unrepentant thief who here struggles against the binding ropes. Sodoma was born and trained in Lombardy, but spent most of his life in Siena, where he dominated Sienese painting during the first half of the 16th century. Known for his emotionally charged paintings as well as for his eccentric lifestyle, Sodoma's individuality is evident in his drawings. Here, in the first drawing by this important Renaissance artist to enter the museum's collection, the scratchy and trailing lines of the figure, with its various pentimenti (changes) create the active tension and nervous movement that both enliven the form and suggest the pain of the suffering thief.

Object facts

• Title: The Unrepentant Thief
• Date: c. 1530
• Creator attribution: Sodoma (Italian, 1477–1549)
• Culture: Italy
• Type: Drawing
• Technique: black chalk
• Dimensions: Sheet: 14 x 8.7 cm (5 1/2 x 3 7/16 in.); Secondary Support: 14.8 x 9.5 cm (5 13/16 x 3 3/4 in.)
• Collection: DR - Italian
• Department: Drawings
• Accession number: 1998.108

Collection credit

Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Cleveland Museum of Art, “Cleveland Acquires Major New Sculpture, Rare Chinese Prints, Contemporary Prints, Drawings & Photographs,” October 30, 1998, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.