Study of the Recumbent St Sebastian

Author: Sarah Vowles

This double-sided sheet bears two preparatory studies for The Coronation of the Virgin, the altarpiece by Paolo Veronese (1528-1588) that was originally painted for the Venetian church of Ognissanti around 1586, now in Venice.^[1] On the recto is the ambitiously foreshortened figure of St Sebastian, who reclines in the lower centre of the finished altarpiece; on the verso is a study for Christ, who appears in the upper part of the picture with God the Father and the Virgin herself. By the 1580s, Veronese had developed a well-organized workshop and could delegate part of the preparatory process for such commissions. He focused on the overall concept, producing high-level compositional designs, such as the sheet of swift pen-and-ink sketches for The Coronation of the Virgin, which is now in Oxford.^[2] Detailed studies of particular figures, to be drawn from live models, were then entrusted to his assistants.

The searching quality of the line in these drawings, with pentimenti and reinforced contours, shows that they are preparatory studies and not copies after the finished painting. There are also slight (compositional) differences from the picture: Christ is shown nude here, rather than draped, and in the painting his right arm reaches further across his body towards the Virgin. These studies are evidently works in process. The identity of the draughtsman, however, is not yet universally agreed. Tietze/Tietze-Conrat, following the old inscription ‘di Carleto’, gave the sheet to Veronese’s gifted son Carlo Caliari, an attribution that was already regarded with some caution when it was repeated in the 1985 exhibition catalogue.^[3] Carlo would only have been sixteen years old at the time that The Coronation of the Virgin was painted. It is likely that, for these significant and striking figures in the picture, Veronese would have turned to a more experienced assistant. More recently, Dalla Costa has made a persuasive case for this to be Benedetto Caliari (1538-1598), Veronese’s brother.

Benedetto’s character as an artist remains uncertain, as he devoted his life to faithfully emulating the style of his brother. However, Dalla Costa argues that Benedetto can be plausibly identified as the author of black chalk studies such as this, which come close to Veronese’s own work, but display a certain anatomical lack of confidence, and a more nervous handling of the chalk, often with fluttering touches of white heightening, as seen here.^[4] If the Rotterdam drawing of a male nude seen from behind is by Carlo, as seems very likely, then it is clear that the present sheet cannot also be by him. It displays a very different understanding of structure and light. While in the former drawing the chalk highlights are used to model the flesh, the highlights in the present sheet appear more decorative than functional. They mark out features or broad areas, such as St Sebastian’s loincloth or Christ’s sceptre, and do little to suggest three-dimensionality. Likewise, the brisk parallel hatching does little to suggest volume and, as on Christ’s torso, instead has the effect of flattening the body into a single plane. There are also anatomical idiosyncrasies in the present drawing: Christ’s arms, for example, are disproportionately long when compared to the size of his head, and both figures have a slender, slightly elongated quality, which is very different to the robust presence in the other Rotterdam drawing.