Sebastiano Luciani, called Sebastiano del Piombo

Sebastiano Luciani, known as Sebastiano del Piombo, was a Venetian-born painter who became one of the most celebrated artists of the Italian High Renaissance in Rome. Trained under Giovanni Bellini and Giorgione in Venice, he moved to Rome around 1511 where he forged a close collaboration with Michelangelo, whose influence profoundly shaped his monumental figure style. He is renowned for his psychologically intense portraits and large-scale religious works, and in 1531 was appointed keeper of the papal seal (piombo), from which he derived his famous epithet.