VALENTIN LEFÈVRE Lot n° 1160

(Brussels, 1642 - Venice, 1677) The Martyrdom of St. Sebastian Oil on canvas, 99X137 cm Valentin Lefèvre was born in Brussels in 1642 and moved to Venice in the 1650s to study Renaissance masterpieces and, in particular, the works of Paolo Veronese. In the lagoon city he worked for the rest of his life enjoying uncommon success, producing paintings of extraordinary elegance. Because of its stylistic characteristics and Flemish lucidity of luminosity, the work under consideration finds precise points of comparison with the master's autograph works and precise correlation with Paolo Veronese's 1588 fresco kept in the church of San Sebastiano in Venice, where Veronese also produced St. Sebastian before Diocletian. These compositions were extraordinarily successful and were copied by countless artists. For example, St. Sebastian in the presence of Diocletian is known to be a version made by Lefèvre preserved in the Galleria Palatina in Florence, while the Martyrdom of the Saint, was copied by Luca Giordano in 1683 in a drawing now in the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana. Returning to the canvas under consideration, it should be noted that it was executed with the utmost attention to the most minute details, suffice it to observe the inscription Lazarum placed on the mace of the executioner on the left, a detail never copied by anyone, the meaning of which is well explored in Arabella Cifani's file, pointing out that in Venice only a painter like Lefèvre could grasp its subtle significance. One must also take note of the stylistic and morphological characteristics of the work, whose Flemish treatment of the drafts finds precise correspondence with the Supper in the House of the Pharisee and the Presentation in the Temple formerly from the collection of Consul Smith and now in the Royal Collection, which constitute the earliest and surest evidence of Lefèvre's interest in Paolo Veronese. The painting is accompanied by a critical file by Arabella Cifani. Reference bibliography: T. Pignatti, Le pitture di Paolo Veronese nella chiesa di San Sebastiano in Venezia. Con una notizia tecnica sui restauri by L. Tintori, Milan 1966, ad vocem M. Kahr, The Meaning of Veronese's Paintings in the Church of San Sebastiano in Venice, in: Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institute, Vol. 33, 1970, pp. 235-247 T. Pignatti, F. Pedrocco, Veronese, Complete Catalogue, Florence 1981, ad vocem J. Bentini, S. Marinelli, A. Mazza, La pittura veneta negli stati estensi, Verona 1996, ad vocem U. Ruggeri, Valentin Lefèvre (1637 - 1677). Paintings. Drawings. Engravings, Reggio Emilia 2001, ad vocem