Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Pope Clement VII
Sebastiano del Piombo (Sebastiano Luciani) Italian
Not on view
Clutching a letter or diplomatic brief, his pose enlivened by the turn of his head, the Medici pope Clement VII is shown as a commanding and intellectually alert leader. Yet his miscalculations as well as external events—the disastrous sack of Rome in 1527 and the reestablishment of the Florentine republic with the exile (again) of the Medici—may have prevented this painting from being delivered to its intended recipient; it was surely conceived with a significant function and destination in mind, but it remained with the painter until his death. The likeness was rendered obsolete when the pope grew a beard after the sack, as a sign of mourning. Clement was the rumored father of Alessandro de’ Medici, whose portrait hangs nearby.
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