In the second talk introducing the National Gallery's long-awaited exhibition, we will discover how the young artist’s ability to absorb influences and integrate them into his own work, not to mention his capacity to charm those around him, meant that he was soon in demand - even to the exclusion of the more experienced artists. While many of the projects he worked on in Rome – the frescoes for Popes Julius II and Leo X, for example, and the tapestries for the Sistine Chapel – cannot, for obvious reason, be included in the exhibition, many glorious paintings are. We will consider these works in the context of the fixed and fragile projects which cannot be transported to London.