28.06.2008 to 28.09.2008
An exhibition of the Gemäldegalerie in cooperation with the Soprintendenza Speciale per il Polo Museale Romano
Sebastiano Luciani, later named del Piombo, is one of the lesser known, but no less outstanding artists of the Italian Renaissance. The painter, originally from Venice, was once a serious contender to Raphael when it came to winning favour with the Roman public and was also befriended with Michelangelo. In his atmospheric paintings he manages to fuse the Venetian colours of his masters Giovanni Bellini and Giorgione with the monumentality of the Roman school.
Sebastiano del Piombo was the name given to him when Pope Clement VII awarded him the lucrative papal office of keeper of the leaden seals in 1531. His work encompassed altarpieces, few mythological scenes and most of all portraits. This exhibition, first shown in the Palazzo Venezia in Rome, is a collaboration between the Gemäldegalerie and the Soprintendenza Speciale per il Polo Museale Romano and boasts many works on loan from across the world, affording us for the very first time a magnificent insight into the diverse work of this great painter. Works on display will include paintings on wood, canvas or slate, as well as drawings, which were often used as preparatory sketches for frescoes. Alongside works by Sebastiano himself, drawings by Michelangelo and some Spanish descendants of his style will also be on display, offering us a hint of the enormous success the artist enjoyed in his day.
A lecture series will also run parallel to the exhibition.
Catalogue:
Sebastiano del Piombo 1485 + 1547
Published by Claudio Strinati and Bernd W. Lindemann
Federico Motta Editore, 2008
383 pages with numerous detailed prints
ISBN: 978-3-88609-623-7
38 Euro