(Florence 1417-1491)
Saint Sebastian as a knight,
Tempera on panel on gold ground, 51.5 x 12.6 cm, with integral frame

Provenance:
European Private Collection

We are grateful to Filippo Todini for suggesting the attribution.

The present painting depicts Saint Sebastian as a knight in accordance with an iconography of medieval origin that is rarer in the 15th century than the more customary image of a young, bare-chested man tied to a pole or tree and pierced with arrows. The saint is shown standing, elegantly dressed with green garments cinched by a belt, a pink cloak lined in squirrel, white leather gloves and red boots, while in his hands he clutches three arrows and the martyr’s palm. The length of the panel indicates that it was most probably once the side panel of an altarpiece of some considerable size.

Of high quality and fine execution, the picture may be firmly attributed to Domenico di Michelino, and specifically to a youthful phase in his activity, not long after 1450. In the career of the Florentine master, this falls at a time when, following his training in the workshop of Fra’ Angelico, where he is mentioned as a pupil by Vasari (see G.Vasari, Lives, 1568, translated by G. C. de Vere, vol. III, London 1912, p. 36) and a period of working with Zanobi Strozzi, he became influenced by Filippo Lippi and Pesellino, developing a very individual and highly decorative style, which enjoyed considerable success over the years and was appreciated by important patrons (see A. M. Ciaranfi, Domenico di Michelino, in: Dedalo, VI (1925–26), pp. 522-537; L. Collobri Ragghianti, Domenico di Michelino, in: Critica d’Arte, VIII-IX (1949–50), pp. 363-78).

The precision of the drawing, the broad manner of defining the facial features, and the light, luminous colour range are typical of Domenico di Michelino, as may be seen in the frescos of the Chapel of San Leonardo in Santa Maria at Peretola, near Florence, painted between 1449 and 1454. The links are even closer with paintings on panel such as the altarpiece with the Madonna enthroned and six Saints in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich (WAF 1086) dated 1458, the Madonna and Child enthroned with Saints Anthony Abbot, John the Baptist, Margaret, James, Peter and Mary Magdalene in the Museo della Basilica di S. Maria delle Grazie at San Giovanni Valdarno, originally from S. Margherita dei Cerchi in Florence, the fragmentary Madonna standing with the Child and Saints John the Baptist, Michael Archangel, Christopher and a bishop saint from the National Museum of Fine Arts at Valletta (Malta), and in part too with the later Madonna enthroned with Saints John the Evangelist, Cosmas, Damian and Thomas in the Chellini chapel in San Domenico at San Miniato, commissioned by Giovanni Chellini in 1461 (see A.Bernacchioni Committenti Sanminiatesi nell’attività di Domenico di Michelino, in Bollettino dell’Accademia degli Euteleti, 57, (1990), pp. 5-14).

The marked ‘courteous’ and profane nature of the depiction of Saint Sebastian, a sort of late-Gothic evocation translated into the pictorial realism of the Florentine early Quattrocento, also betrays a singular affinity in taste with the style of Benozzo Gozzoli as exemplified by his famous fresco of the “Procession of the Magi” in the chapel in Palazzo Medici, Florence, executed for Cosimo the Elder and Piero de’ Medici in 1459-60.

We are grateful to Filippo Todini for cataloguing the present lot.