ber of notable portraits, including those of Pope Clement
VII (1526; Capodimonte, Naples; see Plate XIV) and Car-
dinal Pole (c. 1537; St. Petersburg). In 1531 he received a
papal sinecure as keeper of the curial seal (which was
made of lead—hence his nickname “Piombo”); after this
he executed few further works. Other major works in-
clude St. John Chrysostom with other Saints (1510–11; San
Giovanni Crisostomo, Venice), Portrait of a Young Man
(1514; Uffizi, Florence), and Holy Family with a Donor
(1517–18; National Gallery, London).
Further reading: Michael Hirst, Sebastiano del Piombo
(Oxford, U.K.; Clarendon Press and New York: Oxford
University Press, 1985).
Secundus, Janus (Jean Second, Jan Nicolaesz.
Everaerts) (1511–1536) Netherlands poet
Secundus was born at The Hague into a distinguished
Netherlands family and studied law at Bourges before be-
coming secretary (1533) to the archbishop of Toledo. It
was while he was in Spain that he wrote his Basia, a series
of amatory poems that show the influence of Catullus;
written, like all Secundus’s work, in elegant humanist
Latin, the Basia has been translated into many languages.
In 1534 Secundus accompanied Emperor CHARLES Vto
Tunis before returning briefly to the Netherlands to be-
come secretary to the bishop of Utrecht. His increasing
fame as a writer of Latin verse led Charles to offer him the
post of private Latin secretary, but he died of fever near
Tournai en route to join the emperor in Italy. Besides
Basia, Secundus also wrote odes, epigrams, elegies, and an
account of his travels. He was interested in painting and
sculpture and several portrait medals have been attributed
to him.
Sellaio, Jacopo del (1442–1493) Italian painter
A Florentine by birth, Sellaio was known by the name that
reflects his father’s trade of saddlemaker. He was a pupil
of Filippo LIPPIand also influenced by Botticelli and
Ghirlandaio. He is represented by Madonnas in the
Palazzo Pitti, Florence, and in the Ca’ d’Oro, Venice, and
by panels depicting the triumphs of love, chastity, and
time in the Museo Bandini, Fiesole.
Sendivogius, Michael (Michael Sendivow) (1556–after
1630) Polish alchemist
Sendivogius was widely known in his day as the possessor
of a powder obtained from the Scot Alexander Seton (died
1604) and supposedly capable of transmuting lead into
gold. Successful demonstrations were reportedly given to
RUDOLF IIin Prague and to King Sigismund of Poland in
Warsaw. Shortly afterward, in 1607, Sendivogius lost the
remainder of Seton’s dwindling stock of powder. There-
after little is known of him until 1625 when he reappeared
in Warsaw peddling a variety of nostrums. There was,
however, a more serious side to Sendivogius. In such
works as Novum Lumen Chemicum (1604; translated as A
New Light of Alchemy, 1650) he developed a theory of met-
als which was to prove highly influential among a later
generation of alchemists and chemists.Seneca, Lucius Annaeus, the Younger (c. 4 BCE–65
CE) Roman philosopher and dramatist
He was the son of the rhetorician Lucius Annaeus Seneca,
the Elder (c. 55 BCE–c. 37 CE), and became a leading Stoic
philosopher in Rome, as well as participating in public life
there. His literary reputation brought his appointment as
tutor to Nero, over whom at first he exercised some bene-
ficial influence, but he was eventually ordered by the em-
peror to commit suicide. His calmness and courage at his
death contributed substantially to his standing as a moral-
ist. The humane and noble qualities of Seneca that so at-
tracted his Renaissance admirers are captured in RUBENS’
striking Death of Seneca (c. 1609–10; Bayerische Staats-
gemäldesammlungen, Munich), painted from a famous
Roman statue that was then believed to depict this subject.
In the Middle Ages Seneca was known as the author
of a book on natural phenomena but primarily for his
philosophical dialogues, treatises, and epistles. The tem-
per of these was so congenial to the medieval mind that
many people believed that Seneca had been a Christian,
and the appeal of both his sentiments and style continued
unabated among the Florentine philosophers of the 15th
century. His tragedies too were known and their moral
character highly praised. The medieval definition of
TRAGEDYas a great man’s fall from prosperity to adversity
owes much to the argument of Seneca’s plays.
It is no exaggeration to say that the revival of tragedy
on the Renaissance stage was entirely founded on Seneca’s
nine dramas on Greek mythological subjects. Although
probably based on ancient Greek originals, they deviate
considerably in mood and treatment from surviving Greek
tragedies. The latter were barely accessible to the 15th
century, as no printed texts existed and very few people
could have read them if there had been any, so Seneca’s
plays were the sole ancient models available. It is likely
that they were written for recitation rather than acting,
and their style is highly rhetorical, declamatory in tone,
and recondite in allusion, combining excessive moralizing
with bizarre horrors. These features were avidly incorpo-
rated in neo-Latin and vernacular imitations.
Further reading: Gordon Braden, Renaissance Tragedy
and the Senecan Tradition: Anger’s Privilege (New Haven,
Conn.: Yale University Press, 1985); Lorraine Helms,
Seneca By Candlelight: And Other Stories of Renaissance
Drama (Philadelphia, Pa: University of Pennsylvania
Press, 1997).Senfl, Ludwig (c. 1486–c. 1542) Swiss composer
From 1496 to 1513 Senfl sang in the Hofkapelle of Em-
peror Maximilian I in Vienna, Augsburg, and Constance.44336 6 SSeeccuunndduuss,, JJaannuuss