Sebastiano Luciani, called Sebastiano del Piombo
Portrait of a Man
circa 1516
Oil on wood panel
36.5 cm x 25.9 cm (14 3/8 in. x 10 3/16 in.)
The Suida-Manning Collection

This small panel is a fine example of High Renaissance painting. Its extraordinarily subtle light and graduated modeling tell of the artist's Venetian origins, specifically his training in Giorgione's workshop. The lucid geometry of the man's face and the regularity of its drawing are also based upon Giorgione's lessons, but they have been reinforced and refined by Sebastiano del Piombo's experience of the new classical style in Rome, to which he relocated in 1511. This arresting personality seems inspired by another aspect of that style: Raphael's human characterization. Coherent, utterly individual, but also inflected toward an ideal type, his presence is the psychological equivalent of the painting's perfectly balanced forms. Given the figure's contemporary dress, the dark green background, and above all the strong sense of presence, this representation is without doubt a portrait. The painting was not, however, originally of this format. Examination of the panel reveals that at some early stage it was cut down from a much larger composition and later, probably in the early twentieth century, balanced with the addition of a narrow strip along the right edge. Comparison with the proportions of other portraits by del Piombo suggest that the format would have been three-quarters length, very similar to that of the slightly later Portrait of a Humanist (National Gallery, Washington, D.C.).