Cardinal Bandinello Sauli, His Secretary, and Two Geographers
Medium
oil on panel
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.)
Classification
Painting
Department
CIS-R
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Samuel H. Kress Collection
Accession Number
1961.9.37
Art Historical Context
Step into the Renaissance world with *Cardinal Bandinello Sauli, His Secretary, and Two Geographers* (1516), a masterful oil-on-panel portrait by Sebastiano Piombo. This expansive (nearly 5 by 6 feet) captures the Genoese cardinal in rich crimson robes, flanked by his and two scholarly geographers huddled over maps and a globe. Painted during Sebastiano's time in Rome—after his Venetian roots and collaboration with Michelangelo—it exemplifies the High Renaissance fusion of Venetian color richness and Roman monumental form. Sebastiano's innovative group portrait breaks from the era's typical s...