Roman School, circa 1615-20

Believed to have been bought at auction in Torquay, Devonshire, in the 1940s by a Torquay watchmaker and coastguard;
By whom bequeathed to the present owner some years ago.

"The following condition report has been provided by Sarah Walden, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting appears to be in its original size, with the base edge at one time having been folded over, but now relined, with slightly unnecessary pressure although there was not a particularly impasted surface initially. One small flake has been lost at the lower left base edge. The old stretcher bars lines were clearly once brittle and there is a line of darkened old retouching in the upper right corner, with a small old retouched knock at the upper middle of the right edge. The old varnish is more or less opaque in the darks, with some whitened crystallised patches which makes it hard to ascertain the state of the background. There are horizontal lines and splashes of blanching at lower right, which may be as reversible as the crystallisation of the varnish. The old fold near the base has a line of old retouching, and there are various apparently superficial touches on the chest, in the shadow by the shoulder, and in the lower cheek and the side of the nose. The interior of the mouth and nostrils have been strengthened, with other reinforcing touches probably along the line of the eyelids, eyebrows and under the lip. These seem to be cosmetic surface touches, and the underlying paint looks rather finely preserved with the modelling of the face and chest and the shadows, for instance near the hair and eyes and in the throat, apparently unworn. The lovely still life at lower left is apparently in beautiful condition. This report was not done under laboratory conditions."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

The painting was formerly attributed to Bartolomeo Schedoni, as the name on the 19th-century English carved and gilt wood frame suggests.

It is remarkable that a painting of such high quality has not yet been securely attributed. The work's composition is closely related to a painting by Francesco Cairo in a private collection.¹  It is an indiscutable fact that Cairo must have known it when he painted his variant: the cropped compositions are identical, the body of Sebastian runs diagonally across each picture space, his helmet visible front-on in the immediate foreground.  Both are sensual renditions of the same religious subject but they come from different painting traditions. Cairo's painting recalls Lombard artists, in particular Morazzone, and has been dated to the artist's youthful period, that is to the second half of the 1630s. The present painting on the other hand seems to date from slightly earlier, around 1615-20, and is more akin to painters working in Rome.  The influence of Carlo Saraceni is especially evident and echoes of the French painters working around Saraceni are also discernible; Guy François, Pensionante del Saraceni, and the Master of the Open-mouthed Boys among them.  In 1637 Cairo was sent to Rome by the Duke of Savoy² and it seems plausible to assume that Cairo must have seen the picture hanging in a Roman collection and, using it as his prototype, painted his own interpretation of this memorable portrayal of Saint Sebastian shortly afterwards.

1.  F. Frangi, Francesco Cairo, Turin 1998, p. 248, cat. no. 36, reproduced fig. 45. Another version, of upright (painted oval) format and of inferior quality, was with Algranti, Milan, in 1967 and its authorship is questioned by Frangi: op. cit., p. 294, cat. no. A4, reproduced fig. 140.
2. Cairo is thought to have spent a year in Rome, from 1637 to 1638, but no paintings from this period have been identified thus far.