Judgment of Solomon

Sebastiano del Piombo's Judgment of Solomon from around 1507 was painted while he was still in Venice, before his transformative 1511 move to Rome that brought him into Michelangelo's orbit. The Old Testament judgment scene — Solomon threatening to cut the disputed baby in half to expose the true mother's love — was a vehicle for depicting the wisdom of just rulership. Sebastiano's early Venetian style shows the influence of Giorgione in the atmospheric landscape setting and the warm colorism, while the figures display an early tendency toward the monumental that would fully emerge after his Rome experiences.

The warm Venetian palette and soft atmospheric effects demonstrate Sebastiano's early training, with the figures arranged in a classicizing composition that already hints at his future engagement with Roman monumentality.