Summary The collaboration between Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) and Sebastiano del Piombo (1485-1547), is among the most extraordinary artistic partnerships of the early modern period. It produced works of startling originality, crucial to the development of the so-called High Renaissance in the first decades of the sixteenth century. It was arguably Michelangelos most creative collaboration, helping him refine motifs and narrative strategies, and it proved determining for Sebastianos development of a monumental, spiritually invested idiom whose influence became a touchstone for religious art deep into the following century, and for principles of painterly abstraction beyond. Inspired by the exhibition Michelangelo & Sebastiano, mounted at The National Gallery in London in 2017, this book unites a group of international scholars in reflection on the two artists, their collaboration and its wider significance. TABLE OF CONTENTS Matthias Wivel ? The Compass and the Mirror Elena Calvillo ? Friendship, Medium and the Diverging Lives of Sebastiano del Piombo and Michelangelo Piers Baker-Bates ? Copies and Versions in Sebastiano's Art? The Christ Carrying the Cross Sheryl E. Reiss ? A Word Portrait of a Medici Maecenas: Giulio de' Medici (Pope Clement VII) as Patron of Art Arnold Nesselrath ? Raphael: Of Heirs and Pretenders Matthias Wivel and Rachel Billinge ? Sebastiano's Vich Triptych Carlo Piga ? Da Michelangelo a Sebastiano: antiche suggestioni e moderne invenzioni nel ciclo decorativo della Cappella Borgherini in San Pietro in Montorio a Roma Stefania Pasti ? Aperietur in tempore: Sebastiano del Piombo and the Borgherini Chapel in the Light of Prophetic Readings Paul Joannides ? A New Drawing by Sebastiano del Piombo for the Semi-Dome of the Borgherini Chapel Costanza Barbieri ? Sebastiano as Portraitist and a Case Study: The Portrait of Michelangelo Pointing at His Drawings Oriana Sartiani ? A Portrait of Michelangelo Attributed to Sebastiano del Piombo: Technical Examination, Discoveries, and Treatment Simonetta Antellini ? L'originalit compositiva della Nascita della Vergine di Sebastiano del Piombo Daniela Luzi ? 'Il bel secreto': La pittura sperimentale sulla pietra di Sebastiano nella Cappella Chigi Morten Steen Hansen ? The Readings of Angels: Sebastiano del Piombo and the Politics of the Immaculate Conception Andrea Donati ? Marcello Venusti, Michelangelo and the Legacy of Sebastiano del Piombo Charles Robertson ? Michelangelo's Last Judgement: Sebastiano del Piombo's Contribution