Heuvellandschap met drie schaapskoppen

1509

Trip to Rome, learning from the Vatican masters

In 1509 he travels to Rome and learns from the artists who had just done their first work in the Vatican, but soon returns to Siena. Unlike Il Sodoma and Peruzzi, whose Roman forays imbued them with elements of the Umbrian-Florentine Classical style, his style remains, in striking ways, provincial.

after 1509

Church pictures and mythological decorations in Siena

Back in Siena, he paints religious pieces for churches and mythological decorations for private patrons, only mildly influenced by the Mannerist trends that dominate the neighbouring Florentine school.

1517–1544

Directs the pavement of Siena Cathedral

He directs the celebrated pavement of Siena Cathedral in commesso work — white marble engraved with the outlines of the subject in black, with borders inlaid in many colours — and makes very ingenious improvements in its technical processes. He lays scenes from the stories of Ahab and Elijah, of Melchizedek, of Abraham and of Moses; for the entry of the emperor Charles V into Siena he makes a triumphal arch and an immense mechanical horse.

18 May 1551

Died