Saint Ambrose and Saint Sebastian
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Oil panel painting, a lower register right side panel from a larger altarpiece, Saint Ambrose on the left and Saint Sebastian on the right, before a fictive architectural frame.
Saint Ambrose wears a mitre, a red chasuble with a yellow lining, a dark green surplice over a white cassock. He holds a triple scourge in his right hand, and a crozier in his left, rendered in gilt low relief with the figure of the Holy Lamb in the curl of the ornamented top. Saint Sebastian wears red hose and a black tunic. He holds two arrows in his left hand and a sword, the point resting on the ground, in his right hand.
The floor is tiled with a geometric pattern. In the background, there is an ornate square pillar decorated with acanthus scrolls and an ionic capital supporting a beaded architrave. Beyond, there is a plain blue-green background.
Two panels at Waddesdon (see also acc. no 872) once belonged to a large polyptych altarpiece from Milan dedicated to Saint Francis and the Virgin. They were painted by a little-known artist whose work demonstrates both the taste for excessive ornamentation at the Sforza court, and new innovations brought to the city by visiting artists. This panel originally formed the right-hand side of the lower register.
Saint Ambrose, on the left, is the patron Saint of Milan and is shown with the triple scourge, symbolic of the Trinitarian doctrine with which he confronted the Arians. He also holds a bishop's crozier with the Holy Lamb rendered in gilt low relief, reminiscent of fine goldsmith work. Saint Sebastian, on the right, was a popular saint, believed to guard against the plague. He holds the arrow and sword of his torture and eventual martyrdom.
The central section of the altarpiece from which these panels come shows the Virgin Mary and Christ Child seated on a throne, surrounded by musical angels (now Musée des Beaux-Arts, Dijon). The side-panels of the upper register also contain pairs of full-length Saints: Saint Bernardino of Siena, Saint John the Baptist, Saint Francis and Saint Jerome (now Musée National d'Histoire et de l'Art, Luxembourg). The patterns on the background entablature and pillars are repeated in all five panels. The lost upper sections of the altarpiece probably showed God surrounded by angels (see Vertova, 1969).
Elements of the fictive architecture recall Bramante's innovative architecture in the re-modelled Church of Santa Maria presso Santo Satiro, Milan, completed in 1484. Similar designs were probably also carved into the wooden framework surrounding the panels, also covered in gold leaf. The lack of reference to Leonardo's revolutionary technique dates the work prior to 1490. The perspectival technique is more akin to a large reliquary of statuettes, rather than a convincing building inhabited by real people. The altarpiece may possibly relate to payments made in 1487 from the Operai of the Cathedral of Milan although there is a lack of evidence to support this suggestion. It was probably made for a Franciscan convent or for patrons devoted to Saint Francis.
The Luxembourg panels were attributed to Bevilacqua in 1957 (see Vertova, 1969). Giovanni Ambrogio Bevilacqua, called il Liberale, was one of several Lombard painters who broke away from the Gothic style. He did, however, rely heavily on copying motifs from other painters. He was the son of a woodcarver from Milan. He was a member of the Guild of Painters in 1481. He painted devotional altarpeices and church frescoes in Milan and the surrounding area. His signed and dated frescoes in the church of S. Vittore at Landriano of 1485 have stylistic similarities in the faces of the Saints and architectural details with the two panels at Waddesdon. Bevilacqua remained committed to the taste for expensive ornamentation that dominated the Sforza court, but he did try to keep abreast of the innovators who came to Milan, such as Leonardo and Bramante. After 1500, when the French occupied Milan, Bevilacqua returned to producing more traditional devotional scenes associated with local piety.
Phillippa Plock, 2012
Dimensions (mm) / weight (mg)
1077 x 574 sight
frame 1410 x 870
Signature & date
not signed or dated
Inscriptions
SCS. AMBROXIVS
Inscription
lower left to lower centre, on the orphry of Ambrose's dalmatic
Labels
MILANESE SCHOOL
15th century
Label
on frame, lower centre
Provenance
- Owned by Mrs Baring from the Revelstoke branch; bought by Alice de Rothschild (b.1847, d.1922) from Mrs Baring via Durlacher Brothers, London, for £400 for both paintings, receipt dated 15 August 1905, as by Macreno d'Alba; inherited by her great-nephew James de Rothschild (b.1878, d.1957); accepted by The Treasury Solicitor in lieu of taxes on the Estate of Mr James de Rothschild in 1963; given to Waddesdon (National Trust) in 1990.
Collection
- Waddesdon (National Trust)
- Accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to the National Trust for display at Waddesdon Manor, 1990
Bibliography
- Ellis Waterhouse, Anthony Blunt; Paintings: The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor; Fribourg; Office du Livre, The National Trust; 1967; p. 324, cat. no. 163; as Lombard School
- Luisa Vertova, A Dismembered Altar-Piece and a Forgotten Master, The Burlington Magazine, 111, 1969, 70-79; 112-121; pp. 70-72, 76, 112, 121, ill.; as by Bevilacqua, dated 1485-90
Subjects
- Religion/Biblical Figures & Saints/Saint Ambrose
- Religion/Biblical Figures & Saints/Saint Sebastian
- Figures/Group
- Figures/Male
- Work & Occupations/Religious Vocations/Bishop
- Objects/Religious & Ceremonial/Mitre
- Objects/Religious & Ceremonial/Crozier
- Religion/Christian Iconography/Martyrdom
- Architecture/Architectural Features
- Decorative Motifs & Patterns
- Religion/Biblical Figures & Saints/Christ
- Animals/Mammals/Lamb
- Objects/Armour & Weaponry/Whip for Hitting People
- Objects/Armour & Weaponry/Bow & Arrow
- Objects/Armour & Weaponry/Sword
- Decorative Motifs & Patterns/Geometric Patterns