Saint Sebastian
Saint Sebastian
- Artist
- Master of the Greenville Tondo
- Artist Dates
- active 1500-1510
- Artist Nationality
- Italian
- Title
- Saint Sebastian
- Date
- c. 1500-10
- Medium
- oil on panel, transferred to canvas on pressed-wood panel
- Dimensions
- 76.7 x 53.4 cm (29-7/8 x 10-3/4 in)
- K Number
- K1557
- Repository
- Princeton University Art Museum
- Accession Number
- 1995-330
- Notes
Provenance
Conti degli Oddi, Perugia. [1]. Edward Solly, London; (sale Christie's, London, 8 May 1847, no. 38, as Raphael); Lord Northwick,Thirlestane House, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, until 1873; Sir J. Charles Robinson; Cook Collection, Richmond, Surrey; [2] (Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi [1878-1955] Rome and Florence); sold to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation on 11 July 1948 as Raphael; gift to the Princeton Art Museum. [1]According to the inscription formerly on the back of the painting and according to Christie's catalogue of the Solly sale, May 8, 1847, no. 38. [2] Exhibited at Old Masters, Royal Academy, London, 1875, no. 178, as Raphael.
Catalogue Entry
Master of the Greenville Tondo
Saint Sebastian
K1557
Trenton, NJ., State Museum, since 1963. Transferred from wood to canvas on masonite. 29 7/8 x 20 3/4 in. (75.9 x 52.7 cm.). Inscribed on loincloth, at right: SACIO (?)(1) Good condition except for minor restorations. Attributed to Raphael when in the Solly Collection, K1557 has more recently been given to Giannicola di Paolo by some critics; by others to Eusebio da San Giorgio; yet others hesitate to deny it to Raphael.(2) The attributions to Giannicola and Eusebio point to Perugino's following – possibly even to his studio about the time of Raphael's presence there. In a painting which was in the 1937 Berlin Museum sale,(3) a St. Sebastian corresponding to K1557 appears in full length between two executioners and the head is used with no essential variation as angel head in a Madonna and Child with Angels in the Pinacoteca Estense, Modena,(4) and again in a tondo of the same subject in the Bob Jones University Collection, Greenville, South Carolina.(5) The two latter paintings are included in an oeuvre which has been suggested(6) for a follower of Perugino tentatively called, from the Bob Jones painting, the Master of the Greenville Tondo. The Berlin St. Sebastian referred to above would seem to belong to the same master's oeuvre,(7) and this may be said also of K1557,(8) the date of which must be, in any case, around 1500. On the back of the panel from which K1557 was transferred was inscribed, reportedly in a seventeenth-or eighteenth-century hand:(9) QUESTO S. BASTIANO E STATO DA RAFFAELO SANZIO DA URBINO DIPINTO PER I SIGNORI CONTI DEGLI ODDI PERUGIA. I.A.D.S.P. (This St. Sebastian was painted by Raphael Sanzio of Urbino for the Conti degli Oddi, Perugia). The last five letters are unexplained. Provenance: The Conti degli Oddi, Perugia.(10) Edward Solly, London (Descriptive Catalogue, n.d., no. XXVIII, as Raphael; sold, Christie's, London, May 8, 1847, no. 38, as Raphael; bought by the following). Lord Northwick, Thirlestane House, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire (catalogue, 1853, no. 570, as Raphael; until 1873, when bought, through Sir J. Charles Robinson, by the following). Cook Collection, Richmond, Surrey (catalogue by T. Borenius, vol. I, 1913, no. 58, as Giannicola, although Herbert Cook adds a footnote suggesting defense of the Raphael attribution) –exhibited: 'Old Masters,' Royal Academy, London, 1875, no. 178, as Raphael. Contini Bonacossi, Florence. Kress acquisition, 1948 –exhibited: Philadelphia Museum, Philadelphia, Pa., 1950-53.(11)
References
(1) Whether or not original, this inscription would seem to be intended to stand as Raphael's signature. (2) K1557 has been attributed to Giannicola by T. Borenius (see Provenance, above, and Borenius' edition of Crowe and Cavalcaselle, History of Painting in Italy, vol. v, 1914, p. 459), U. Gnoli (Pittori e miniatori nell'Umbria, 1923, p. 140), R. van Marle (Italian Schools of Painting, vol. XIV, 1933, p. 430); tentatively to Eusebio da San Giorgio by B. Berenson (Pitture italiane del rinascimento, 1936, p. 154); and to Raphael by W. E. Suida (see note 11, below), H. Cook (tentatively, see Provenance, above), and R. Longhi (tentatively, in ms. opinion, 1948). (3) Sale, Julius Böhler's, Munich, June 1 and 2, 1937, no. 669, as Giannicola di Paolo; reproduced in sale catalogue, pl. 54. (4) Reproduced by W. Bombe, Perugino, 1914, p. 196, as doubtfully or wrongly attributed to Perugino. (5) Reproduced in catalogue of the Italian paintings in the Bob Jones Collection, 1962, p. 55, as Studio of Perugino. It is reproduced and attributed by W. Burger (in Burlington Magazine, vol. LV, 1929, pp. 87 f.) to the Peruginesque Sinibaldo Ibi. (6) In ms. opinion by F. Zeri quoted on p. 54 of the catalogue cited in note 5, above. (7) The Berlin painting even helps prove that the work on the tondo in Greenville need not be divided, as has been suggested, between two artists. (8) The inclusion of K1557 in the oeuvre of the Master of the Greenville Tondo has been suggested by E. P. Fahy, Jr. (in a letter of Dec. 15, 1966). (9) According to Borenius (loc. cit. under Provenance) and Suida (loc. cit. in note 11, below). (10) According to the inscription formerly on the back of the painting and according to Christie's catalogue of the Solly sale, May 8, 1847, no. 38. (11) Catalogue by Suida (in Philadelphia Museum Bulletin, vol. XLVI, Autumn, 1950), no. 4, as Raphael.