French school of the late 15th century. "Saint... Lot 48

French school of the late 15th century. "Saint Sebastian with a male donor". Limestone. With important remains of polychromy and five inserted iron arrows -possibly later substitutions. The donor's head is from a later period. Measurements: 70 x 43 x 23 cm. Saint Sebastian was undoubtedly the most represented martyr in Renaissance art, since the artists of the time highly valued recreating the lines of the body, extracting the expressiveness of the turned limbs, of the naked flesh and the harmonic canons. This is evident in this unpublished sculptural group, in which the graceful posture of the almost naked male body shows a knowledge of classical contrapposto, which had gradually spread from Italy during the previous 15th century. Sebastian stands with his hips turned to the viewer's left on the axis of his leg. We assume that he stoically observes his archer-executioners at their murderous task, while his shoulders are set on an opposite diagonal, with the left one withdrawn and the other forward. With his slender anatomy, long curly hair and loincloth knotted at the waist, the saint resembles an image of his master, Jesus Christ, tied to a pillar by Roman soldiers at the behest of Pontius Pilate to be scourged as punishment and then released. In the absence of any information on its provenance, it is almost impossible to catalog the piece in bidding or to locate it precisely within the boundaries of France, without a specialized and cross-referenced photographic archive. However, it is rare and wonderful to observe the diminutive male donor with his face portrayed convincingly genuine. The kneeling figure brings this ethereal vision of a cruel martyrdom firmly down to earth and anchors it in the "here and now": curiously, this appropriately smaller figure (because he is much less important) does not gaze in awe at the saint towering over him, but directly behind his legs. This implies that he was looking with a certain guilty expression at the missing figure of his wife. Donor figures of this type were very common in France and throughout Europe, as they provided tangible and lasting recognition of the earthly merit of certain mortals for their good works, which usually included payment to the artist of the Christian image to which they were linked. At the Sainte-Chapelle in Dijon, Claus de Werve sculpted in 1415 a life-size donor in prayer (a "priant," as opposed to a "gisant," or recumbent effigy), representing one Dino Rapondi, known from a later drawing. His bulging purse, hanging from his belt, blatantly indicates his worldly wealth.