SEBASTIANO DEL PIOMBO

This likeness of a young Roman woman is infused with Michelangelesque monumentality. Only the landscape shows the artist’s Venetian roots, close to Titian.

The Birth of the Virgin is the main altarpiece in the Cappella Chigi, the funerary chapel of the Chigi family. The mural was begun by Sebastiano del Piombo in 1530 but it was left unfinished in 1534. Work on the chapel resumed in 1548 when Francesco Salviati was commissioned to create frescoes on the drum and the spandrels, although Raphael intended mosaics on these surfaces. He also completed the mural above the main altar.

The painting was executed for Giovanni Grimani, Patriarch of Aqquileia from 1546 to 1593. There are two other version of the same subject by Sebastiano, one in Rome (Castel Sant’Angelo) and Berlin (Staatliche Museen).

This painting formed originally the left panel of a triptych, the central panel of it was the Lamentation of Christ, now in the Hermitage. Sebastiano used for this composition a drawing by Michelangelo.

Sebastiano came to Rome in 1511 and soon became friends with Michelangelo, who took him under his wing. Michelangelo admired Sebastiano’s coloration and made drafts for the paintings of his friend, who could not compete with the master with regard to compositional and heroic figural concepts.

Of the many painters who assimilated and vulgarised the contemplative, romantic manner of Giorgione, Sebastiano del Piombo was inspired by the monumental form and by the possibility of making it solemn with the use of colour. It is precisely in this contained plasticism that we find the result of the integration of the two pictorial cultures. This painting shows a still Giorgionesque atmosphere - the view of the lake and the sunset - in which three superb examples of sculptural nudity are inserted: a doleful Venus, and her attendant maidservants, who turn abruptly to silence a bearded Pan who is continuing to play his flute.

The intended purpose of this draft, depicting the figures of the Holy Family, is not known. A striking feature is the motif of the globe, which characterizes Christ as the ruler of Heaven and Earth. On the verso of the sheet, Sebastiano drew a separate study of the infant Jesus in a larger scale.

Sebastiano del Piombo trained in the workshop of Giovanni Bellini in Venice, where he was a contemporary of Giorgione. In around 1510 he moved to Rome, and apart from occasional trips away spent the rest of his life there. He brought to Roman art the new Venetian pictorial language, sense of colour and interpretation of the classical idiom. Sebastiano worked with Michelangelo, from whom he took his use of drawing as the basis of his compositional structure, as well as the monumental conception of his figures. He achieved great fame in Rome for his paintings, which expressed a classicism different to that of Raphael.

This painting shows the influence of Michelangelo.

This is one of the most important examples of Venetian painting from the 16th century, signed and dated Sebastianus Venetus faciebat Rome 1520 on the parapet in the foreground, where the henchmen’s knife has been placed. Critics have highlighted the fact that the work was commissioned by Ercole Rangone, appointed cardinal by Pope Leo X in 1517 and holder of the church of Sant’Agata in Rome. The painting’s particular shape (rectangular but developed across its width), suggests that it was for private worship, meaning that the cardinal did not intend to display it on the altar of his church but rather, to keep it for himself.

The painting shows the martyrdom of Agatha, a Sicilian virgin, who was born and lived in Catania in the 3rd century A.D. According to tradition, the proconsul of Catania, Quintianus, who desired Agatha, accused her of blaspheming the state religion and ordered her capture. In order to bend her to his will, he subjected her to an increasing amount of torture. The suffering that has most remained in popular memory, and the most widespread of the images, is when Agatha’s breasts were cut off with enormous pincers. The painter has included a building in the background that’s in danger of falling into the flames, a reference to the earthquake that occurred during the saint’s martyrdom.

From a style point of view, critics have highlighted how Sebastiano del Piombo chose a formal solution for this violent scene, characterized by the composition’s strong horizontal accent, as was frequently used by his fellow countrymen for subjects with a meditative or domestic tone, such as the Ages of man (for example in Giorgione’s painting) or the numerous Madonnas and saints. There are also style elements of Venetian origin, such as the profil perdu of governor Quintianus on the far left, a technique previously used by Giorgione.

The knife in the lower left corner draws attention to the artist’s inscription, a curiously cruel association with the torture taking place. Agatha, subjected to a series of gender-specific tests and torments, emerged virtuous and victorious. In a work that his contemporaries considered his best, Sebastiano displayed the virgin saint’s unmarred, uncringing, and Michelangelesque body.

Generally called a Pietà, perhaps it is better regarded as a Lamentation, although the full-figured seated Mary is very materially present. In fact the impact of Michelangelo on the Venetian artist is here dramatically present, in the greater than previous attention that Sebastiano pays to human anatomy on the one hand, and the monumentalisation of the figures on the other. One should not, however, belittle Sebatiano’s invention in this, among the finest images painted in the second decade of the sixteenth century.

In the Loggia di Galatea of the Villa Farnesina, Sebastiano del Piombo depicted the cyclops Polyphemus sitting on a charming, idyllic coastline with a dog, a flute, sand a shepherd’s crook. He is looking longingly at the sea, out to the right, where in the adjacent field of the wall Raphael depicted the voyage of the nereid Galatea. Sebastiano’s Polyphemus is a Venetian painting of mood, rich in atmosphere, treated in an airy and loose style.

In this portrait of Clement VII, the illegitimate son of Lorenzo il Magnifico’s brother and patron of both Michelangelo and Sebastiano, greater attention is given to the figure and less to the space around him. In Sebastiano’s portrait, the not altogether handsome Medici pope is rendered dignified and monumentalised. While the portrait type itself derives from Raphael’s Julius II, other elements reveal his debt to Michelangelo, such as the enlarged hand dangling from the chair. The elegant treatment of material and the placement of light that flickers over the entire figure produce ample visual excitement.

Andrea Doria (1466-1560) was the dominant figure in Genoa in his times. He was an extraordinarily talented naval commander. Coming from an impoverished branch of an ancient local family, he succeeded in enriching himself and reestablishing Genoese independence after protracted domination by the French. His fellow citizens named him Principe (Prince) and Pater Patriae (Father of the Homeland).

Sebastiano’s nickname, Piombo (Lead), derived from his sinecure as “Piombatore” (Sealer in the Papal Chancery). He preferred gray slate as a support for his pictures and painted his portrait of the Genoan patrician in the colour of slate, with a shadowy, gloomy mound projected on the background, a disquieting motif - ‘umbram suam metuit?’ For the Venetian artist Sebastiano Luciani the colour gray, which is never bright in his paintings but always dark, dull, and heavy, must have had serious and fairly negative psychological implications. Yet it is also true that the reflections of light on lead are intense and where there is much shade, there is also much light: ‘lumina inter umbras clariora sunt,’ especially in the work of a painter whose name, according to ancient myths, brings good fortune and is equivalent to a star.

The maritime symbols - including an anchor, a beaked prow, a helm, and other parts of an ancient ship - allude to the subject’s rank as Admiral of the Fleet. They are taken from an Imperial Roman marble frieze that in the painter’s time was on display in the basilica of San Lorenzo Fuori Le Mura and is now in the Museo Capitolino.

Antonio (Antoniotto) Pallavicini (1441-1507) was one of the best known Roman prelates, belonging to an ancient aristocratic family. The portrait of the cardinal was painted after his death, possibly as a commission from his relatives. In the 17th century, the painting belonged to the Flemish painter Anthony van Dyck. Following a recent restoration the painting has been reattributed to Titian.

Reginald Pole (1500-1558) was an English prelate, a Cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church, and the last Roman Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury during the Counter Reformation against the Church of England.

This portrait is an outstanding work of its kind. Sebastiano’s technical mastery is evident in the elaboration of the forms the naturalness of the figures’ poses, their expressions and gestures. The treatment of light is clearly subjective and deliberately dramatic, serving to highlight the principal figure of Carondelet, while his two secretaries on either side are in shadow (one of them barely distinguishable). Behind the figures and also in shadow is a classical-style portico with Corinthian marble columns, a coffered ceiling and in the background a pediment. On the right the depiction of the evening landscape reveals Sebastiano’s Venetian origins. The golden-tinted clouds and sky lend this section of the canvas the character almost of an independent landscape.

The text on the sheet of paper which the principal protagonist holds in his hand can be translated as: “To the honourable, loyal and beloved Ferry Carondelet, Archdeacon of Besancon, Imperial Councillor and Commissioner in Rome.”

Sebastiano Luciani was a pupil of Giovanni Bellini and later of Giorgione, the greatest masters of the Venetian Quattrocento. He was known as Sebastiano del Piombo due to his Vatican office of Keeper of the Seal. The lyrical aspect of his paintings sprang from the earlier Venetian training, but he later came under the influence of Raphael and Michelangelo, and more dramatic elements appeared, principally in the works of religious character.

Sebastiano Luciani was born in Venice, where he worked as the pupil and follower of Giovanni Bellini and later of Giorgione. After 1511 he moved to Rome, where he came under the influence of Raphael and Michelangelo, who were working there at that time, and he gradually abandoned the soft, picturesque Venetian style of his early work to become one of the most important representatives of the School of Rome. He was frequently commissioned to paint portraits of the Roman nobility. In 1531 he was given the sinecure of Piombatore Papale (keeper of the Papal seals) and thereafter called himself Sebastiano del Piombo.

When Portrait of a Man was bought for the Museum in 1895, it was generally believed to be a portrait of the poet Antonio Tebaldeo by Raphael; in the Ducal Gallery of Modena, too, it had been attributed to Raphael. But at the beginning of the twentieth century it was decided that this picture and several other paintings of the same type, also attributed to Raphael, were in fact the work of Sebastiano - the main reason for the decision being the Venetian character of the landscape background. The posture and clothes of the sitter indicate that the portrait was painted in Rome between 1515 and 1520.

That the sitter is a lady is clear from her fur, her jewelry, and the trim on her linen, on which classical motifs are embroidered with gold thread. The lessons of Leonardo, Raphael, and Giorgione are here in the shading on skin and pelt, and in the softly modeled contours of the face, with its compelling gaze.

This small painting was intended for private devotion. It reveals the painter’s subtle use of light and shade. The serene arrangement of the figures in a peacefully illuminated space reflects Sebastiano’s study of Giorgione.

This altarpiece depicts St John Chrysostom with Sts Catherine, Magdalen, Lucy, John the Evangelist, John the Baptist and Theodore. It is a painting with an official, doctrinal message, based on the association of the three Johns. Chrysostom is sitting side on, not in compliance with any mannerist idiosyncrasy but simply to enable us to see and read the book of his golden Word.

The altarpiece has at the centre an old man reading, oblivious of the saints around him. It is a tightly knit and crowded group, the slightly yearning figure of St John the Baptist on the right looking inwards is balanced by a trio of grandly assured, superb Venetian beauties looking forwards and outwards at the spectator. The figures are in an architectural setting.

This altarpiece is the major work of Sebastiano executed in Venice before he removed to Rome permanently in 1511.

The two saints are on the outer face of the shutters of the organ in the church of San Bartolomeo. When closed, the shutters debate the theoretical aspects of the relationship of the arts, imparting to the painting the precise definition of a single architectural space for the two figures, which are depicted as imposing ancient statues.

Sebastiano decorated the doors of the organ loft in the church of San Bartolomeo near the Rialto bridge in Venice. He set figures of four saints in niches: St Louis of Toulouse, St Sinibaldo, St Sebastian and St Bartholomew.

The two saints are on the inner faces of the shutters of the organ in the church of San Bartolomeo. Open, the shutters take full advantage of light and shade, not to squash in the shallow niches the delightful contrast between the solemn elegance of the bishop and the relaxed composure of Sinibaldus, the humble pilgrim.

Sebastiano decorated the doors of the organ loft in the church of San Bartolomeo near the Rialto bridge in Venice. He set figures of four saints in niches: St Louis of Toulouse, St Sinibaldo, St Sebastian and St Bartholomew.

The painting was based on a design by Michelangelo, who in many other cases made drafts for the paintings of his friend, Sebastiano.

The donor was probably Pierfrancesco Borgherini, a wealthy merchant and a friend of both Sebastiano del Piombo and Michelangelo. Borgherini was the same client who commissioned from Sebastiano the decoration of a chapel in San Pietro in Montorio, Rome.

On the verso of the sheet, Sebastiano drew a separate study of the infant Jesus in a larger scale than that on the recto.

Giulio de’ Medici commissioned a Raising of Lazarus from Sebastiano del Piombo to donate to the cathedral of Narbonne, which owned a relic relating to the story. In his Gospel, St John divided the story of the miracle into three parts: Jesus bids the people taker the stone from the tomb, He tells Lazarus to rise, and then He tells him to unbind his shroud. Sebastiano shows the third of these commands.

Sebastiano’s rivalry with Raphael is well exemplified by this ambitious painting, which is justly regarded as his most demanding effort, one that failed, however, to dislodge Raphael’s primacy in Rome. The share that Michelangelo may have played in the conception of the picture is not known. Since Michelangelo was physically outside of Rome during its execution, he was only able to follow Sebastiano’s progress by letter. The gesture of Christ towards Lazarus must be regarded as a paraphrase of Michelangelo’s Creation of Adam.

This painting was commissioned by the city of Venice from Sebastiano to be offered to Queen Claude, wife of Fran�ois I. The massiveness of the figures, the austerity of the mineral-hued faces, the glowing palette prove the artist’s familiarity with the work of Michelangelo.

After the building was completed the initial focus of the decoration was the garden loggia on the Tiber side of the villa (the Loggia di Galatea). Originally it opened to the landscape on two sides through arcades. The vault of the loggia was decorated by Baldassare Peruzzi in 1510-11, while the lunettes were painted in the fall of 1511 by Sebastiano del Piombo. Chigi probably had two sections of the wall painted in 1512, the others were not decorated until the seventeenth century.

On the left Sebastiano del Piombo depicted the cyclops Polyphemus sitting on a charming, idyllic coastline with a dog, a flute, sand a shepherd’s crook. He is looking longingly at the sea, out to the right, where in the adjacent field of the wall Raphael depicted the voyage of the nereid Galatea. Sebastiano’s Polyphemus is a Venetian painting of mood, rich in atmosphere, treated in an airy and loose style. Raphael’s Voyage of Galatea shows beauty and grace in the clear, artful study of her body, in the harmonious, symmetrically balanced composition of the figures.