The Master of San Sebastiano Monti

F. Frangi, Daniele Crespi, La giovinezza ritrovata, Milan 2012, p. 77, reproduced fig. 41 and in colour plate XII.

This painting has a fairly recent, slightly uneven relining, and has been cleaned and restored. There is one old well restored vertical tear 28cm in length running through Christ's raised shoulder. Apart from this the painting appears to be in excellent overall condition with only a degree of wear, restored sensitively with scattered small retouchings.
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Closely linked to Daniele Crespi's most youthful period, the work of the as-yet anonymous Lombard artist known as the 'Master of San Sebastiano Monti' was first grouped together by Professor Francesco Frangi and later expanded by Dottoressa Nancy Ward Neilson.¹ A fascinating exponent of early Milanese Baroque during the 1630s, the Master's style shows an intimate understanding of the works of Daniele Crespi, but also incorporates elements from Giovanni Battista Crespi, called Cerano, and Giulio Cesare Procaccini.

The small corpus of his works takes its name from the Saint Sebastian with two angels, formerly in the Monti collection and now in the Arcivescovado in Milan. At first Frangi suggested that the Saint Sebastian, as well as two paintings in the Milanese church of San Simpliciano, a Dead Christ with two angels and a Risen Christ appearing to the Virgin, might have been very early works by Carlo Francesco Nuvolone, closely following the style of Giulio Cesare Procaccini and Daniele Crespi. Neilson added to the group a Madonna and Child with Saints Francis and Carlo Borromeo and a Beheading of the Baptist, both in the church of Sant'Alessandro in Milan.

Reassigning these works to the Master of San Sebastiano Monti, Frangi subsequently omitted from the corpus the altarpiece in Sant'Alessandro and a further work in the Museo Berareggi in Bergamo, giving these to the young Daniele Crespi himself, adding instead a Saint Sebastian in the church of San Carlo al Corso in Milan as well as a Saint Sebastian in the cathedral of Lugano. The latter painting can be closely compared to the present work in the figure of the turbaned ruffian. A further painting depicting Saint Francis and Brother Leo, recently on the art market, should also be considered by the master.²

 

1. See F. Frangi, Le Stanze del Cardinale Monti, 1635-1650. La collezione ricomposta, exhibition catalogue, Milan 1994, pp. 208-09; N. Ward Neilson, Daniele Crespi, Soncino 1996, pp. 68-70; F. Frangi in M. Gregori (ed.), Pittura a Milano dal Seicento al Neoclassicismo, Milan 1999, pp. 248-49.
2. Anonymous sale, Milan, Christie's, 29 November 2006, lot 65, for €100,000.