13 SEBASTIANO DEL PIOMBO (Sebastiano Luciani) Italian, circa 1485­1547 Pope Clement VII, circa 1531 Oil on slate 105.5 x 87.5 cm (41½ x 34½ in.) 92.PC.25 This portrait depicts Giulio de' Medici (1478­1534), who reigned as Pope Clement VII from 1523. Clement is principally remembered as one of the greatest patrons of the Renaissance. His art commissions include Raphael's Transfiguration (Rome, Pinacoteca Vaticana), Michelangelo's Medici Chapel and Laurentian Library (Florence, San Lorenzo), as well as the Last Judgment for the Sistine Chapel (Rome, Vatican). Clement was also Sebastiano's greatest benefactor, from the commission for The Raising of Lazarus (London, National Gallery) in 1517 to the bestowal of the high office of Keeper of the Papal Seals in 1531. Sebastiano's portrait style has a distinctive, monumental grandeur particularly suited to state portraits like this one. The pope is depicted in three­quarter length, seated in an armchair that is canted diagonally to the picture plane. The first independent papal portrait to adopt this format was Raphael's Portrait of Julius II (London, National Gallery) of 1511­12. Sebastiano's several portraits of Clement VII are the next images to use the compositional arrangement, establishing it as the standard for state portraits of the pontiff. Thereafter, the formula has been followed almost invariably by the popes painters and photographers to the present day. This portrait, painted on slate, is probably the one Sebastiano mentioned in a letter to Michelangelo dated July 22, 1531. Aspiring to eternalize his works, Sebastiano began to experiment with painting on stone about 1530. Slate had not often been used as a support for painting, but Sebastiano came to favor it for especially important commissions. The pope seems to have shared his concern with longevity as he specified the stone support for his portrait. They both knew that wood and canvas would rot, and that slate is extremely durable, as long as it is not dropped. DC 30 ITALIAN SCHOOL