finished by Sebastiano. A large altarpiece of the Birth of the Virgin, still in Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome, was begun in the late 1530s but had to be finished after his death by Francesco Salviati. Before his death in 1541, the executor of Agostino Chigi's estate commissioned a large Visitation as a memorial, in Santa Maria della Pace, Rome. It was still half-finished at Sebastiano's death in 1547, and was eventually removed in the 17th century. Fragments with some of the over life-size main figures are at Alnwick Castle, in a style of impressive simplicity, the end point of a "tendency to over-generalize appearances and pictorial structures so that they verged on an effect of geometrical abstraction" that had been increasing apparent in his work since his early years in Rome. Vasari records that he died after a short illness on 14 June 1547, at the age of 62. His will directed that he be buried very simply in Santa Maria del Popolo, with the savings from not having an elaborate burial given to the poor. After efforts by Daniele da Volterra his remains were moved in 1561 to the predecessor of the Rome Accademia di San Luca. Technique Sebastiano was trained in the Venetian tradition of rich, subtly varying, colours in oil painting. In the Raising of Lazarus (1517–1519) he used a very wide range of pigments, often in complicated mixtures, and the painting can be seen as a display of Venetian skill for the Roman critics, attempting to achieve "the greatest and most subtly varied range of colours ever seen in a single painting". He became less interested in colour as his career progressed, and many later works are rather sombre, with touches of bright colour. His early works generally use the Venetian technique of freehand underdrawing on the surface to be painted, no doubt following a relatively approximate sketch, as was his technique for the Kingston Lacy Judgement of Solomon. But after some years in Rome he began to use full-size cartoons for frescos, which were pricked along the lines and then soot "pounced" through, to give dotted lines on the surface for the artist to follow. This technique, normal in Florence and Rome, was used in the fresco Transfiguration of the Borgherini Chapel, for which some pricked sheets survive. However, this was his last work in fresco. From early on he was innovative and ready