Biography

Bastiano (Aristotile) da Sangallo, Italian architect, painter, draughtsman and stage designer, nephew of Giuliano da Sangallo and Antonio da Sangallo the Elder. His nickname derived from his serious way of talking and a supposed resemblance to an antique portrait bust of Aristotle. He was a pupil of Perugino, whom he assisted in his work on the main altarpiece for Santissima Annunziata in Florence. Around 1505 he made a copy (untraced) of Michelangelo's cartoon of the Battle of Cascina (destroyed), presenting an oil painting (Holkham Hall, Norfolk) based on it to Francis I, King of France, in 1542.

In 1508 Bastiano was called to Rome, where he was among the five artists who assisted Michelangelo during the first phase of the decoration of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican and who taught him the technique of fresco painting. He also became a regular visitor at the house of Raphael, whom he may have met in Florence, and became acquainted with Bramante; he was also an occasional assistant to the fabric of St Peter's in 1526-28.