Sebastiano del Piombo at the National Gallery

Note: This is part of a series on room 12 of the National Gallery. An incredible & priceless repository of masterpieces of the Renaissance. 

✲✲✲

Sebastiano del Piombo was one of the most outstanding portrait painters. Some of his portraits are v. famous and instantly recognisable — e.g. Pope Clement VII — but, for some reason, the importance and the name of this artist has faded.

It was Pope Clement who, in 1531, appointed Sebastiano to the lucrative position of the “Keeper of the Papal Seal” (“del Piombo”), from which his nickname is derived. The post demanded frequent attendance on the Pontiff, even on excursions outside Rome.

In his own time, Sebastiano was as famous as his contemporaries Raphael, Michelangelo, Giorgione and Titian. He was born in Venice and began art training relatively late. He entered the studio of Giovanni Bellini and subsequently studied with Giorgione.

At some point, I need to visit his key work, “The Judgment of Solomon”, which was a little-known canvass until the 1980s — Kingston Lacy, in Dorset.

✲✲✲

Judith, or Salome

My favourite.

So striking and v. powerful; and also beautiful.

This is a painting of Salome (daughter of Herodias) and Salome is (it seems to me) alluring and beautiful (lascivious?) — but also cold & ruthless. The contours and details of her magnetic eyes and nose are amazing. Those tight lips suggestive of a short-temper. And ... those little threads of hair by her ear are just delightful. 

Salome, at the request of her mother, asked for the head of St John the Baptist from King Herod. On a platter.

Her sleeves are incredibly and so delicately painted. The folds of her vibrant blue dress shimmer in the light while also balancing the shadows in its crevices.

✲✲✲

Portrait of a Lady

Beautiful.

This lady reminds me of “the Madonna” in Sebastiano’s other famous painting which I reviewed before. (“The Madonna and Child with Saints and a Donor”). 

The portrait style is interesting (probably mannerist).

The subject’s assured stance and gaze suggest that she was probably some prominent figure of her time, yet she remains (apparently) “unidentified”. Her magnificent costume, trimmed with exquisitely painted fur, adds to her imposing presence. She holds pieces of cloth with a Latin inscription warning of the risks of love: “the snares of Venus: beware”.

The fabulous green in the folds of the curtain is such a wonderful contrast.

✲✲✲

The Raising of Lazarus

Amazing.

Enormous and captivating in its drama and religious reverence. A vast landscape extending to the horizon. 

The pink (originally red; which has since degraded) and blue robes of Christ are a recurring colour theme of Sebastiano. Christ stands out — as does Lazarus. Lazarus has yellow-brown hue of jaundiced flesh. Face dark and covered. 

All attention is directed towards the Christ & his outstretched arm and finger. In other paintings, a subject of Sebastiano’s “looks” at us. Here, Sebastiano doesn’t “include” us in the environment. I love the reactions of the women (light green dress and blue). So much drama & shock.

There is a huge backstory to this painting.

In 1511, the Sienese banker Agostino Chigi visited Venice. He was the financier to the popes and kings. At that point, his master Giorgione had died, and Titian was in Padua. So, Agostino Chigi reckoned that Sebastiano was the finest artist Venice had to offer. He invited him to return to Rome. Thereafter, Michelangelo befriended and promoted Sebastiano — mostly because he saw him as a useful rival to Raphael, whose rising popularity seemed to the Florentine to be undermining his own. (They fell out later on with respect to the Sistine Chapel’s “Last Judgment”). 

Cardinal Giulio de’ Medici organised a public contest between Sebastiano and Raphael by simultaneously commissioning the painting of ‘‘The Resurrection of Lazarus” from Sebastiano and the “Transfiguration” from Raphael. The “Lazarus” was shown first, and critical opinion regarded it favorably with Raphael’s latest works. Raphael became anxious to prevent the two paintings from being exhibited side-by-side, and this only happened after his death in 1520.

✲✲✲

The Madonna and Child with Saints and a Donor    *reconsidered*

I wrote about this painting in August 2023:

Not sure what to think of this.

Perhaps somewhere in the middle of late and high R.. It seems to have a triangular composition at its centre; but background is a strange curtain under which John the Baptist sleeps (which suggests a private viewing?). The Madonna does have a disproportionately large size and has her arms around the Christ and the donor. Long fingers too. Donor = friend of Michelangelo and Sebastiano and was a wealthy friend. The Christ is barely holding on and he seems to have a similarly disembodied presence too with an asymmetric twisted figure. 

Not sure if I warm to this painting. It feels a bit unsettling.

I was totally wrong. It’s not “unsettling” at all. It’s amazing how much art we learn in a space of a year.

It’s beautiful and very intense & dramatic. I love the tenderness of The Madonna and the cute way the Christ’s plump hand reaches for her breast. I have since learned that it was a private devotional painting.

The saints are St Joseph and John the Baptist (pointing to the Christ, and as an adult). The Christ v. similar to Raphael’s “Madonna della Seggiola”.