THE GUARDIAN
By Jonathon Jones
 |
| "Salome" (1510) by Sebastiano del Piombo. UK National Gallery |
The names are not quite equal in fame. This spring the
National Gallery is putting on an exhibition called "
Michelangelo and Sebastiano." You may have heard of
Michelangelo. But who is
Sebastiano, and why has he got a joint exhibition with one of the greatest artists who ever lived? Sebastiano’s art veers between sensuality and spirituality, the service of sex and God. The provocation of his early art still shines through in his painting
Salome, also known as
The Daughter of Herodias (1510). A young woman, very obviously painted from life, turns towards us from a window that is filled with a blue-hilled north Italian landscape. [
link]
 |
| An elegy in paint... Sebastiano’s Death of Adonis, 1512. Photograph: Heritage Images/Getty Images |
