- SEBASTIANO DEL PIOMBO
(c.1485—1547)
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Painter
- Sebastiano del Piombo was a Venetian painter who was
perhaps trained under Giovanni Bellini but was certainly deeply influenced
by Giorgione. When Giorgione died (1510) Sebastiano may have completed
some of his unfinished works: his style at this date can be seen in his Salome
(1510: London, NG). Probably he painted the Judgement of Solomon (Kingston
Lacy, Dorset, NT) before leaving Venice: this unfinished and very damaged
picture, once attributed to Giorgione, is now generally agreed to be by Sebastiano. In 1511 he went to Rome and began working in the Villa Farnesina, in
contact with the Raphael circle. He seems to have quarrelled with Raphael
and soon became a partisan of Michelangelo, who influenced him deeply and
even provided him with drawings to work from (e.g. the Pieta in
Viterbo and
the Flagellation in S. Pietro in Montorio, Rome). His gigantic Raising of
Lazarus
(1517—19: London, NG) shows the Michelangelo influence at its height and
was painted in more or less open competition with Raphael's Transfiguration.
In 1531 he received a Papal sinecure (known as 'il Piombo', hence his
name,
taken from the lead seal used for signing documents) and he painted rather less,
but continued to produce admirable portraits which combine the virtues of his
Venetian training with the Roman discipline in form: examples are Cardinal
Pole (c.1537: St Petersburg) and Clement VII (Rome, Doria Gall.).
There are
other works by him in Arezzo, Basle, Berlin, Budapest, Cambridge, Dublin,
Florence (Uffizi, Pitti), Glasgow (Pollok House), London (NG), Madrid,
Naples, New York (Met. Mus.), Paris (Louvre), Parma, Philadelphia (Johnson),
Rome (Doria Gall., S.M. del Popolo), Sarasota Fla, Venice (Accad. and
churches), Vienna and Washington (NG).
- Source: The Penguin Dictionary of Art and Artists (Penguin Reference Books)
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