Cardinal Bandinello Sauli, His Secretary, and Two Geographers
Sebastiano del Piombo1516
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
Washington, DC, United States
One of the earliest Italian group portraits, this painting depicts Cardinal Bandinello Sauli and three companions gathered around a table covered with a Turkish carpet. Set within a narrow space closed off by a rich green wall hanging, the figures appear to have been discussing the geography manuscript lying open before them.
Bandinello Sauli of Genoa was elevated to the rank of cardinal by Pope Julius II in 1511. In 1516, when this painting was completed, Sauli was at the height of his prestige and influence in Rome. His fortunes quickly changed, for he was imprisoned in 1517 for plotting against Pope Leo X.
The artist, Sebastiano Luciani, is better known as Sebastiano del Piombo from his appointment in 1531 to the office of Keeper of the Papal Seal, or piombo. Probably born in Venice, his earliest artistic influences were undoubtedly Giovanni Bellini and Giorgione. The portrait of Sauli and his companions, with its varying shades of red, green, white, and black, reflects the Venetian love of resonant color. In 1511 Sebastiano moved to Rome to study the works of the High Renaissance artists there. The solidity and clarity of his life-sized figures reveal in particular the impact of Michelangelo, who befriended the young Venetian shortly after his arrival. Remaining in Rome until 1527, Sebastiano became one of the most sought after portraitists in the city.
- Title: Cardinal Bandinello Sauli, His Secretary, and Two Geographers
- Creator: Sebastiano del Piombo
- Date Created: 1516
- Physical Dimensions: overall: 121.8 x 150.4 cm (47 15/16 x 59 3/16 in.) framed: 153.7 x 181.6 x 10.2 cm (60 1/2 x 71 1/2 x 4 in.)
- Provenance: Palazzo Giacomo Balbi del fu Costantino, Genoa, by 1780. Henry Labouchère, 1st baron Taunton [d. 1869], Quantock Lodge, Bridgwater, Somerset, by 1854; probably his widow, Mary Matilda [d. 1892]; probably by inheritance to their daughter, Mary Dorothy Stanley [d. 1920], Quantock Lodge, or her son, Captain Edward Arthur Vesey Stanley [1879-1941], Quantock Lodge, until at least 1912. Henry George Charles Lascelles, Viscount Lascelles and later 6th earl of Harewood [1882-1947], London, and Harewood House, Leeds, Yorkshire, by 1920;[1] by inheritance to his son, George Henry Hubert Lascelles, 7th earl of Harwood [1923-2011], Harewood House; sold 1949 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[2] gift 1961 to NGA. [1] The painting was published in 1920, owned by Viscount Lascelles, as _Portrait Group_ to illustrate the article "A Portrait Group by Sebastiano del Piombo" by Tancred Borenius, _The Burlington Magazine_ XXXVII, no. CCXI (October 1920): 169, repro. Viscount Lascelles became the 6th earl of Harewood after his father's death in October 1929. See also Tancred Borenius, _Catalogue of the Pictures and Drawings at Harewood House and Elsewhere in the Collection of the Earl of Harewood_, Oxford, 1936: no. 62, pl. XIX, where the painting is listed as being in the earl's London residence. Until its demolition in 1934 the earl had resided in Chesterfield House, which he purchased shortly before his 1922 marriage to H.R.H. Princess Mary, the Princess Royal, daughter of King George V and Queen Mary. A photograph probably taken in 1931 shows the painting hanging at the top of the great staircase (reproduced in John Cornforth, _London Interiors from the Archives of Country Life_, London, 2000: 102); however, a photograph of the same part of the house published in 1922 around the time of the wedding shows the same wall empty (H. Avray Tipping, "Chesterfield House, Mayfair.-I. A Residence of Viscount Lascelles," LI, no. 1312 [25 February 1922]: 237). [2] See The Kress Collectioon Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/442.
- Medium: oil on panel
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