page_title: Sebastiano del Piombo
section_title: Personal life and relationship with Michelangelo
hierarchical_section_title: Sebastiano del Piombo / Personal life and relationship with Michelangelo
context_page_description: Sebastiano del Piombo was an Italian painter of the High Renaissance and early Mannerist periods famous as the only major artist of the period to combine the colouring of the Venetian school in which he was trained with the monumental forms of the Roman school. He belongs both to the painting school of his native city, Venice, where he made significant contributions before he left for Rome in 1511, and that of Rome, where he stayed for the rest of his life, and whose style he thoroughly adopted.
  Born Sebastiano Luciani, after coming to Rome he became known as "Sebastiano Veneziano" or "Viniziano", until in 1531 he became the Keeper of the Seal to the Papacy, and so got the nickname del Piombo thereafter, meaning "of the lead", from his new job title of Piombatore. Friends like Michelangelo and Ariosto called him "Fra Bastiano".
  Never a very disciplined or productive painter, his artistic productivity fell still further after becoming piombatore, which committed him to attend on the pope most days, and travel with him. He also had to take holy orders as a friar, despite having a wife and two children.
context_section_description: The main sources for his personality and habits are Vasari and surviving letters, mostly to and from Michelangelo.  Vasari knew Sebastiano, but probably not very well; although he had been compiling material for some time, the first edition of his Lives did not appear until 1550, after Sebastiano's death, and it is not clear if he had specifically discussed the biography with Sebastiano. He knew Michelangelo rather better, and his description of Sebastiano is probably heavily influenced by the hostile attitude Michelangelo had towards Sebastiano after 1534.  Vasari takes up much of his Life bemoaning Sebastiano's supposed indolence and neglect of his artistic talent for a comfortable and convivial life, at least after 1531.
  Vasari says that in later life he lived in a fine house near the Piazza del Popolo, keeping a very good table, and often entertaining regular friends as well as visitors.  He says he was always cheerful and humorous, and very good company.  He became red-faced and rather fat, as the bearded portrait in the Lives suggests.
  As described above, he had become close to Michelangelo by about 1515.  Though they eventually fell out, few people were able to remain on good terms with Michelangelo for a period of nearly twenty years. In 1519 Michelangelo became godfather to Sebastiano's first son, Luciano, after which Sebastiano addressed his letters to "My dearest compare" ("godfather"). The relationship suffered a dip in 1520 when Sebastiano asked Michelangelo to write to Cardinal Bibbiena, a close friend of Pope Leo X, recommending Sebastiano for projects in the Vatican after Raphael's death. Michelangelo sent the letter a month or so later, which Sebastiano presented to the cardinal, without reading it. The letter was in very flippant terms, and Sebastianio complained that it became "practically the only topic of conversation at the Palace, and it makes everyone laugh". Nor did it work in getting Vatican commissions.
  In 1521 he acted as Michelangelo's agent in the installation of the Risen Christ or Cristo della Minerva in Rome, which was botched by the assistant Michelangelo had sent. From 1525 there is a draft for an emotional letter by Michelangelo passing on praise for Sebastiano by one "Captain Cuio", who he had dined with. In 1531 Sebastiano writes a despondent letter describing how "I still don't feel I am the same Bastiano that I was before the Sack; I still don't feel in my right mind." The relationship never recovered from the argument over the Last Judgement in 1534, described above.
caption: Christ Carrying the Cross, about 1513–14, showing "how rapidly he assimilated Michelangelo's monumental treatment of the figure", even before they became close.[48]
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