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Artworks
SEBASTIANO LUCIANI, CALLED SEBASTIANO DEL PIOMBO
Pope Clement VII (1478–1534) in Near Profile, to the RightPope Clement VII (1478–1534) in Near Profile, to the Right66 x 51.4 cm; 26 x 20 1/4 in. (slate);
41 x 27 cm; 16 1/8 x 10 5/8 in. (paper)Provenance
Michelangelo Buonarroti, according to Vasari, commissioned directly from the artist and sent to Florence as a model for two portraits of Pope Clement VII by Giuliano Bugiardini (one representing the Pope with Baccio Valori, the other with the Archbishop of Capua);
Ottaviano de Medici (1484–1546), to whom presented by Michelangelo, according to Vasari, who describes the painting in the 1568 edition of the Vite as in the house of Ottaviano’s heirs;
Cardinal Francesco Barberini(1597–1679), acquired during a sojourn in Florence in 1626, according to Ulderigo Medici, as below;
Cardinal Antonio Barberini (1607–1671), Rome;
By descent to Principessa Anna Barberini-Colonna (1840–1911), Rome and Florence;
By descent to her daughter Elisabetta Stori, née Corsini (1876–1961);
By descent to the most recent ownersExhibitions
Florence, Palazzo Medici Riccardi, Mostra Medicea, 1939, p. 129, no. 5. Berlin, Gemäldegalerie, Sebastiano del Piombo (1485-1547), 2008, no. 41.
Literature
G. Vasari, Le Vite de’ più eccellenti Pittori, Scultori ed Architettori, in G. Milanesi (ed), Le Opere di Giorgio Vasari, 9 vols., Firenze 1878-85 (reprinted, Firenze 1906, 1981 and 1998), vol. 5, p. 581, vol. 6, p. 20;
Inventory of the collection of Cardinal Antonio Barberini, 1644: no. 245 (“un ritratto di Papa Clemente 7.o in lavagna di mano di fra Bastiano del Piombo, con cornice filettata d’oro”);
Inventory of the collection of Cardinal Antonio Barberini, 1671, p. 499, no. 371 (“Un quadro di grandezza di p. [al]mo 81/2 e 6 – rappresentante il ritratto di Papa Clemente 7. S. M. a á sedere”) (without attribution);
Inventory of the Barberini collection, 1844: no. 199 (“un vecchio con berretta rossa, carta sopra lavagna, papa Clemente Settimo, Leonardo da Vinci”);
Inventory of the collection of the Barberini family, 1854: no. 238 (“un Vecchio con berretta rossa, carta su lavagna, Leonardo da Vinci”); U. Medici, Catalogo della Galleria dei Principi Corsini in Firenze, Firenze 1886, p. 141, cat. no. 483 (as Sebastiano del Piombo and property of the Principessa Anna Corsini Barberini, erroneously described as executed in oil on canvas);
G. Milanesi, “Sebastiano del Piombo,” in Les correspondants de Michel-Ange, Paris 1890, pp. 87 and 94; K. Frey (ed), Sammlung ausgewahlter Briefe an Michelagniolo Buonarroti, Berlin 1899, doc. 238;
P. D’Achiardi and R. Venturi, Sebastiano del Piombo, Roma 1908, p. 250 (as probably Sebastiano del Piombo’s model for
Bugiardini’s portrait of the Pope); L. Dussler, Sebastiano del Piombo, Basel 1942, p. 69, and docs. 89, 92 (as Sebastiano del Piombo, probably the model for Bugiardini’s double portrait); R. Pallucchini, Sebastiano del Piombo, Milano 1944, p. 170 (as a replica by Sebastiano del Piombo);
M. Aronberg Lavin, Seventeenth-Century Barberini Documents and Inventories of Art, New York 1975, pp. 167, 310;
C. Langedijk, The Portraits of the Medici, vol. 2, Firenze 1983, p. 1368, cat. no. 24 (as Sebastiano del Piombo, probably the
model for Bugiardini’s double portrait); L. Pagnotta, Giuliano Bugiardini, Torino 1987, p. 68 (as “most likely” Sebastiano’s model for Bugiardini’s portrait; as location unknown);
P. Kruse (ed) et al., Hochrenaissance im Vatikan. Kunst und Kultur im Rom der Papste, exhibition catalogue, Kunsthalle, Bonn
1998, pp. 449-50, under cat. no. 57 (as considered to be Sebastiano’s model for Bugiardini’s portrait).
