Cardinal Bandinello Sauli, His Secretary, and Two Geographers

The painting dates to 1516 and is recorded by 1780 in the Palazzo Giacomo Balbi del fu Costantino, Genoa. It later passed into English private ownership, held by Henry Labouchère, 1st Baron Taunton, at Quantock Lodge, Bridgwater, Somerset, by 1854, and probably descended through his widow Mary Matilda and their daughter Mary Dorothy Stanley, remaining at Quantock Lodge into the early twentieth century. By 1920 the work had entered the collection of Henry George Charles Lascelles, Viscount Lascelles and later 6th Earl of Harewood, who kept it in London and at Harewood House, Leeds.

It passed by inheritance to his son, the 7th Earl of Harewood, who sold it in 1949 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York, which in turn gifted it in 1961 to the National Gallery of Art.

The painting is held by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., as part of the Samuel H. Kress Collection. It entered the Kress Foundation in 1949 and was gifted to the NGA in 1961. It was exhibited in print in The Burlington Magazine in October 1920, illustrated by Tancred Borenius as a Portrait Group, and was subsequently catalogued by Borenius in 1936 as no. 62 in the Earl of Harewood's collection.

Sebastiano del Piombo completed Cardinal Bandinello Sauli, His Secretary, and Two Geographers in 1516. This oil on panel painting presents four figures engaged in an intellectual discussion. The work serves as a group portrait, depicting Cardinal Bandinello Sauli alongside his secretary and two geographers, while also conveying a sense of scholarly inquiry. It exemplifies the artist's approach during the High Renaissance.

Sebastiano del Piombo's relocation from Venice to Rome in 1511 marked a significant turning point in his career. This painting, executed five years later, reflects his establishment within the Roman art scene. His continued presence in the city for the remainder of his life underscores his integration into the High Renaissance artistic environment, where he contributed to the evolving visual language of the period by merging regional styles.