Alejo Fernández

"The following condition report has been provided by Henry Gentle, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. The poplar panel has a vertical reinforced join, horizontal bracing bars, evidence of previous worm infestation and is slightly bowed. There are also visible unstable splits, top and bottom, and a raised and insecure paint layer. The paint surface is significantly augmented and repainted throughout, particularly the foreground, a result of fracturing and thinning, resulting in a filigree of miniscule shrinkage cracks that have broken up the paint, and therefore the image, coupled with myriad pin prick losses. The restoration is excessive and insensitive and there are areas that are better than they seem with fine details intact. The varnish is not discoloured. Offered in a carved gilt wood frame in good condition."
"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."

Probably painted towards the end of the 1520s, this panel by the Sevillian painter Alejo Fernández has only recently come to light. Stylistically it compares extremely closely with Alejo's panels in the church of San Juan, Marchena, depicting, again, a Beheading of St. John along with a Wedding at Cana, which were executed between 1521 and 1523.¹ It is with the Beheading that the relationship can be best discerned, notably in the figures themselves, and especially in those of Salome and her attendants. The design of the executioner exactly follows that of his counterpart in Albrecht Dürer's engraving of the The Martyrdom of Saint Catherine, of 1497. The pose of St. John too, is clearly based on that of the kneeling Saint Catherine, albeit more loosely.

1. See D. Angulo-Iñiguez, Alejo Fernandez, Seville 1946, plates 46 and 47.