Lot 106: Girolamo Giovenone (Vercelli c. 1490-c. 1555)

Girolamo Giovenone (Vercelli c. 1490-c. 1555)
Saint Sebastian in an extensive landscape
with inscriptions 'Sadeler' (crossed out), '44' (crossed out) and 'C. Dolci' (on the mount)
black chalk, brush and brown ink, brown wash, heightened with white, on buff paper
20 x 13¼ in. (50.7 x 33.6 cm.)

Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 10 July 2001, lot 27.

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A study for the figure of Saint Sebastian in the Madonna and Child with Saint Roch and Saint Sebastian in the Church of S. Lorenzo, Mortara (G. Romano, Bernardino Lanino e il Cinquecento a Vercelli, Turin, 1986, p. 32, ill.). Saints Roch and Sebastian were usually represented together in their capacity as protectors against the plague, which suggests that the picture is datable to circa 1524, the year of a plague epidemic in Vercelli. The posture of the saint differs slightly from drawing to picture and in the finished painting the whole figure is not shown, but is instead slightly cut. Cartoons by Giovenone are in the Accademia Albertina in Turin (G. Romano, Gaudenzio Ferrari e la sua scuola, exhib. cat., Turin, Accademia Albertina di Belle Arti, 1982, nos. 9-16).