Early Collaborations | The Credit Suisse Exhibition: Michelangelo & Sebastiano | National Gallery

The first collaboration between Michelangelo and Sebastiano was for an altarpiece depicting the Virgin mourning the dead Christ, or Pietà, as it's called. Michelangelo provided Sebastiano with figure studies. The figure of the Virgin is as often the case with Michelangelo based on a live model, a male model. And we are fortunate enough to have a wonderful drawing studying the torso and the clasped hands. What Sebastiano did with Michelangelo's design was to imbue especially the body of Christ with an incredible sensuality. There's a tactile quality to the surface of his dead skin that you wouldn't imagine Michelangelo achieving in the same way. So, despite the fact that everybody knew that this was a collaboration between Michelangelo and Sebastiano, what was emphasized once it was finished was the night landscape, Sebastiano's main contribution. This was something new and incredibly impressive. It is almost impressionistic in the freedom of the brushwork. And it is so atmospheric. Here, in San Pietro in Montorio, another of the great collaborations between Sebastiano and Michelangelo was the Borgherini Chapel. The decoration of the chapel in the half dome, we see the transfiguration of Christ. And going down, we have the main image, that is, the flagellation of Christ. The part that Michelangelo designed is a flagellation of Christ. And it was unprecedented at that time to have a flagellation as the main altarpiece, and indeed to have a flagellation at this scale. It became their most famous composition, their most copied composition, and indeed it became the model for many flagellations, at least in Italy. The novelty is not only about the new iconography, but also about the technique. Here, Sebastiano, for the first time, is able to solve a big problem, a problem that also Leonardo da Vinci faced in The Last Supper in Milan. Leonardo was trying to obtain deep colours and more contrast between light and darkness. All this was attainable not by fresco, but by oil colouring. But we know very well that Leonardo's Last Supper was very much damaged. So Sebastiano here was able to go further and obtain a durable technique with oil painting. And Giorgio Vasari and the documents of the time recorded this great achievement.