Sebastiano: the forgotten Renaissance genius who swapped sex for God

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

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