SEBASTIANO, an eminent Venetian painter, whose family name was LUCIANO, frequently called FRA SEBASTIANO DEL PIOMBO, from his office of keeper of the Papal signet, was born at Venice in 1485. His first profession was music, in which he attained to great excellence in his youth. Conceiving early a taste for the painter's life, he went to Bellini, who was then an old man, and learned from him the first rudiments of his art. Sebastiano next attached himself to Giorgione, with whom he remained till he had mastered the manner of that artist. His first painting of any note, executed for the church of San Giovanni Crisostomo, in Venice, gives abundant evidence of this, as it has been frequently mistaken for the work of Giorgione. Induced by the representations of Agostino Chigi, merchant at Siena, to go to Rome, Sebastiano on arriving there immediately set to work, and produced some very excellent paintings in the Venetian manner, which were much esteemed by the art-patrons of the capital. Raffaëlle was now rising into great fame as a painter, and, according to Vasari's account of it, Michel Angelo, jealous of his illustrious rival, set up Sebastiano as a fit competitor to the famous artist of Urbino. The whole story is doubtless a fabrication, arising probably from the fact of Michel Angelo having contracted a liking for the exquisite judgment and beautiful colouring of Sebastiano, and from his having undertaken, on that account, to aid him in the art of designing, of which he is universally recognised to be the chief. Be this as it may, it is beyond doubt that Sebastiano simply painted after the designs of Michel Angelo for a number of years, and upon these paintings his reputation as a historical painter chiefly rests. The exquisite beauty of the colouring in those paintings, combined with their rich grandeur of design, if they did not rival Raffaëlle's divine productions, at least excited a great interest in the art-lovers of Rome, and have not ceased since to be the objects of universal applause. The pieces in question were a "Pieta" for the church of the Conventuale at Viterbo; the "Transfiguration" and "Flagellation," in San Pietro in Montorio; and the "Raising of Lazarus," which is esteemed his masterpiece. On the death of Raffaëlle, Sebastiano was accorded the first place in painting, and he continued in his provokingly sluggish manner to design and paint as the fit seized him. Vasari says his peculiar walk was portrait-painting; and assigns as evidence of the statement the beautiful representations of Marcantonio Colonna, Vittoria Colonna, Ferdinando, Marquis of Pescara, Pope Adrian VI., San Micheli, Pope Clement VII., and Anton Francesco degli Albizzi. This last portrait has astonished all eyes who have looked on it. The head and hands are "a sort of miracle," and the portrait did not seem to be painted but living. "No one has ever equalled," says Vasari, "the delicacy and excellence of this work." Perhaps the most striking portrait executed
by this artist is that of Giulia Gonzaga. It is declared by Vasari to be "a most divine one." This picture, and the "Raising of Lazarus," are now in the National Gallery, London. Sebastiano was greatly patronized by Pope Clement VII., who conferred upon him the office of keeper of the Papal signet. This post induced him to assume the monk's habit, and to adopt the title of Fra or Frate del Piombo. Vasari complains heavily against the painter, in his garrulous way, for neglecting to prosecute his sublime art now that he had "sufficiency to live on." Sebastiano was fond of ease, as other men of genius have been, both before and since, which induced him to crack pleasant jokes on those who made themselves busy in upbraiding him for his sloth. "I think," he would say, in his satirical tone, "I think, indeed, that if I live much longer I shall find that everything has been painted which it is possible to paint; and since these good people are doing so much, it is upon the whole well that there is one who is content to do nothing, to the end that they may have all the more to do." Vasari adds, however, "a better or more agreeable companion than himself, of a truth, there never lived." Fra Sebastiano del Piombo died at Rome in 1547, aged sixty-two years.