Sebastiano del Piombo (Sebastiano Luciani), ( c. 1485 – 1547),

was an Italian painter of the High Renaissance and early Mannerist periods. Having achieved success as a lutenist in Venice when young, he turned to painting and trained with Giovanni Bellini and Giorgione. By about 1515, Sebastiano had befriended and allied himself with Michelangelo, who recruited him "as a kind of deputy for him in painting", he having returned to his backlog of promised projects in sculpture. Michelangelo's intention was for Sebastiano to "contest Raphael's first place" in painting in Rome, using at least in part ideas and designs supplied by Michelangelo, whose rivalry with Raphael had become intense. The displayed painting is a crop from Cardinal Bandinello Sauli, His Secretary, and Two Geographers (1516).