The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian

This evocative Saint Sebastian is a significant addition to the young Luca Giordano's Neapolitan oeuvre. It closely parallels a painting at the Schleissheim Palace, Munich (O. Ferrari and G. Scavizzi, Luca Giordano. L’opera completa, Napoli, 1992, I: p. 267, A115; II: p. 529, fig. 192) which Ferrari and Scavizzi dated to circa 1660 based on similarities with a Deposition at the Museo de la Santa Cruz, Toledo. We are grateful to Prof. Giuseppe Scavizzi for endorsing the attribution to Giordano, and to Riccardo Lattuada and Marco Riccòmini who have also confirmed the attribution independently.

The two versions differ only in small details; the soldier in the Schleissheim painting holds a stick or pike, while in the present work he holds a bow, which is more accurate for the saint's narrative. They are the same size; Scavizzi has recently expanded on the idea of the artist revisiting the same subjects and compositions using the same cartoon, as may be the case here. An old photograph in the Fototeca Zeri (no. 52663) had suggested the existence of a third version, previously in the collection of Gioacchino Ersoch (1815-1902) in Rome; however, as pointed out by Lattuada, it may be that the photograph is identifiable with the Schleissheim painting.

Born in Naples in 1634, Giordano was the son of a painter, Antonio Giordano (c.1597-1683), under whom he initially trained. It was Jusepe de Ribera (1591-1652) however, who had the greatest impact on his developing style. Giordano may have worked in Ribera's studio, and his early works show a marked preference for half-length figures of old men and philosophers against dark backgrounds, made famous by his master. Shortly after 1650, accompanied by his father, he travelled to Rome, Florence, and Venice; the trip was short but intensely impactful. Upon his return to Naples the following year, he continued to experiment with a number of styles and remained open to a wide range of artistic influences, assimilating the examples of Caravaggio, Mattia Preti, Rubens and Guido Reni, in the search for his own distinctive idiom. The present painting can be assigned to this period not only by its similarity to the Schleissheim example, but by its dramatic chiaroscuro and loose, expressive brushwork, before the artist moved towards a grander, more dynamic and colourful style, in the manner of Pietro da Cortona.