National Gallery of Art :: The Collection :: Cardinal Bandinello Sauli, His Secretary, and Two Geographers
  • Overview
  • Inscription
  • Provenance
  • Exhibition History
  • Bibliography

Overview

One of the earliest Italian group portraits, this painting depicts Cardinal Bandinello Sauli and three companions gathered around a table covered with a Turkish carpet. Set within a narrow space closed off by a rich green wall hanging, the figures appear to have been discussing the geography manuscript lying open before them.

Bandinello Sauli of Genoa was elevated to the rank of cardinal by Pope Julius II in 1511. In 1516, when this painting was completed, Sauli was at the height of his prestige and influence in Rome. His fortunes quickly changed, for he was imprisoned in 1517 for plotting against Pope Leo X.

The artist, Sebastiano Luciani, is better known as Sebastiano del Piombo from his appointment in 1531 to the office of Keeper of the Papal Seal, or piombo. Probably born in Venice, his earliest artistic influences were undoubtedly Giovanni Bellini and Giorgione. The portrait of Sauli and his companions, with its varying shades of red, green, white, and black, reflects the Venetian love of resonant color. In 1511 Sebastiano moved to Rome to study the works of the High Renaissance artists there. The solidity and clarity of his life-sized figures reveal in particular the impact of Michelangelo, who befriended the young Venetian shortly after his arrival. Remaining in Rome until 1527, Sebastiano became one of the most sought after portraitists in the city.

Inscription

lower right on folded paper: 1516; and the signature: ...S Faciebat; center right on bell near top: EN.TO.R.; on bell near bottom: B.DE.SAVLIS.CAR (abbreviation for Bandinellus de Saulis Cardinalis)

Marks and Labels

null

Provenance

Palazzo Giacomo Balbi del fu Costantino, Genoa, by 1780. Henry Labouchère, 1st baron Taunton [d. 1869], Quantock Lodge, Bridgwater, Somerset, by 1854; probably his widow, Mary Matilda [d. 1892]; probably by inheritance to their daughter, Mary Dorothy Stanley [d. 1920], Quantock Lodge, or her son, Captain Edward Arthur Vesey Stanley [1879-1941], Quantock Lodge, until at least 1912. Henry George Charles Lascelles, Viscount Lascelles and later 6th earl of Harewood [1882-1947], London, and Harewood House, Leeds, Yorkshire, by 1920;[1] by inheritance to his son, George Henry Hubert Lascelles, 7th earl of Harwood [1923-2011], Harewood House; sold 1949 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York; gift 1961 to NGA.

[1] The painting was published in 1920, owned by Viscount Lascelles, as Portrait Group to illustrate the article "A Portrait Group by Sebastiano del Piombo" by Tancred Borenius, The Burlington Magazine XXXVII, no. CCXI (October 1920): 169, repro. Viscount Lascelles became the 6th earl of Harewood after his father's death in October 1929. See also Tancred Borenius, Catalogue of the Pictures and Drawings at Harewood House and Elsewhere in the Collection of the Earl of Harewood, Oxford, 1936: no. 62, pl. XIX, where the painting is listed as being in the earl's London residence. Until its demolition in 1934 the earl had resided in Chesterfield House, which he purchased shortly before his 1922 marriage to H.R.H. Princess Mary, the Princess Royal, daughter of King George V and Queen Mary. A photograph probably taken in 1931 shows the painting hanging at the top of the great staircase (reproduced in John Cornforth, London Interiors from the Archives of Country Life, London, 2000: 102); however, a photograph of the same part of the house published in 1922 around the time of the wedding shows the same wall empty (H. Avray Tipping, "Chesterfield House, Mayfair.-I. A Residence of Viscount Lascelles," LI, no. 1312 [25 February 1922]: 237).

Exhibition History

1870
Royal Academy, London, 1870, as The Medici Family.
2002
Deceptions and Illusions: Five Centuries of Trompe l'Oeil Painting, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2002-2003, no. 27, color repro., as Cardinal Bandinello Sauli and Three Companions.

Bibliography

1951
Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection Acquired by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation 1945-1951. Introduction by John Walker, text by William E. Suida. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1951: 104, no. 42, repro.
1959
Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 166, repro.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 122
1968
European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1968: 109, repro.
1968
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XV-XVI Century. London, 1968: 166-167, fig. 399.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 324, repro.
1979
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: I:422-423, II:pl. 302
1979
Sutton, Denys. "Robert Langton Douglas. Part IV." Apollo 110 (July 1979): 51 [243], fig. 12.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 206, no. 252, color repro.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 370, repro.
1992
National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 32, repro.
1992
Jungic, Josephine. "Prophesies of the Angelic Pastor in Sebastiano del Piombo's Portrait of Cardinal Bandinelli Sauli and Three Companions." In Prophetic Rome in the High Renaissance Period. ed. Majorie Reeves. Oxford, 1992: 344+, repro.
2004
Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 96-97, no. 71, color repro.
2008
Strinati, Claudio, Bernd Wolfgang Lindemann, et al. Sebastiano del Piombo 1485-1547. Exh. cat. Palazzo di Venezia, Rome; Gemäldegalerie, Berlin. Milan, 2008: 56, 57 fig. 5, 170-171, no. 32, repro. (not in the exhibition).
2009
Ghia, Andrea Walter. "Casa con villa delli signori Sauli." Atti della Società ligure di Storia Patria, ns. 49 (123), fasc. 2 (2009): 103, fig. 1.
2011
Tostmann, Oliver. "Sebastiano del Piombos Bildnis Bendinello Saulis und das Kardinalsporträt im frühen Cinquecento." Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 3 (2011): 311-348, fig. 1, fig. 16 (detail).

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