Sebastiano del Piombo (originally Sebastiano Luciani), Italian painter. He was a pupil of the Venetian painter Giorgione, whose mild manner influenced Death of Adonis (1512, Uffizi Gallery, Florence). From about 1511 Sebastiano worked in Rome, where he was strongly influenced by Michelangelo, who befriended him, wrote him letters, and gave him drawings that Sebastiano executed in paint. Something of Michelangelo's forceful monumentality may be seen in such works of Sebastiano as the Pietà (circa 1517, Museo Civico, Viterbo), the great Resurrection of Lazarus (1519, National Gallery, London), and the Flagellation (1516-24, San Pietro in Montorio, Rome).
Sebastiano excelled in painting portraits, which show the influence of the Italian Renaissance painter Raphael. They include Andrea Doria (1526, Gallerina Doria Pamphili, Rome) and Clement VII (1526, Museo di Capodimonte, Naples). In 1531 Pope Clement VII appointed Sebastiano keeper of the papal seals (il piombo), from which his nickname was derived.

Works