Cornelis Schut

Laid down. Ink somewhat sunk in places. Some surface abrasion towards left and right edges. Small repaired loss, upper right corner, and another very narrow one, upper left. Oily stain, top right. Sold in a wood and tortoiseshell frame.
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This is a detailed preparatory study for Schut's major altarpiece of the same subject, painted in 1643 for the new altar of the Guild of the "Jongen Voetboog", in Antwerp Cathedral.¹  Schut won the commission in competition with Thomas Willeboirts Bosschaert.  In 1798, the painting was removed from its original location by the French, but never left Antwerp, and in 1890 it entered the collection of the Museum voor Schone Kunsten, where it remains today. 

It seems that the commission was in fact originally given to Van Dyck, who made an oil sketch of the subject, now in Christ Church, but he was unable to execute the painting itself before his death in 1640.  Schut may well have known Van Dyck's sketch, which is similar to the present composition in various respects.  Schut's version depicts the most tense and dramatic moment in the story, immediately before the Saint's beheading.  His painting was reproduced, in reverse, in an engraving by Rombout Eynhoudts.²

1.  G. Wilmers, Cornelis Schut (1597-1655), a Flemish Painter of the High Baroque, Brepols (Belgium) 1996, p. 130-131, no. A66, pl. A66
2.  Hollstein, vol. VI, p. 206; reproduced Wilmers, op. cit., p. 384, fig. A66a