Sebastiano Del Piombo and the World of Spanish Rome ─ Between Faith and Empire

Sebastiano del Piombo (c.1485-1547) was a close associate or rival of the central artistic figures of the High Renaissance, notably Michelangelo and Raphael. After the death of Raphael and the departure of Michelangelo from Rome, Sebastiano became the dominant artistic personality in the city. Despite being one of most significant artistic figures of the period, he remains the last artist of major importance in the western canon about whom no recent study has been published in English. In this study, Piers Baker-Bates approaches Sebastianoa€?s career through analysis of the patrons he attracted following his arrival at Rome. The first half of the book concentrates on Sebastianoa€?s network of patrons, predominantly Italian, who had strong factional ties to the Imperial camp, among them Filippo Sergardi, the Bishop of Vaison and members of the Gonzaga and Colonna families. The second half discusses Sebastianoa€?s relationship with his principal Spanish patrons. The author investigates the domination of Sebastianoa€?s career by these patrons, all of whom were members of a wider network of Imperial loyalties. Thereby, Baker-Bates removes Sebastiano from the shadow of his contemporaries, bringing him to life for the reader as an artistic personality in his own right. His characterization of the Rome in which Sebastiano made his career differs from previous scholarly accounts of recent years, and he describes how Sebastiano was ideally suited to flourish in this environment. The Roman Career of Sebastiano del Piombo thus re-appraises not only the place of the artist in the canon of Renaissance art but, using Sebastiano as a lens, also the world of High Renaissance Rome in which he operated.

Piers Baker-Bates is a Research Associate in Art History at the Open University, UK. He is co-editor ofThe Spanish Presence in Sixteenth-Century Italy (2015).