Louis Finson

(Bruges circa 1578–1617 Amsterdam)
Saint Sebastian,
oil on canvas, 91.5 x 133 cm, framed

Provenance:
possibly Marcantonio Filomarino, 1634 (according to the inventory of his collection in which a painting of this subject is described);
possibly private collection, England, circa 1860;
private collection, Germany (until 2009)

Exhibited:
Naples, Palazzo Zevallos Stigliano,Tanzio da Varallo incontra Caravaggio, Pittura a Napoli nel primo seicento, 24 October 2014 - 11 January 2015

Literature:
G. Labrot, Collections of Paintings in Naples 1600-1780, Italian Inventories I, Munich, 1992, p. 63

Louis Finson’s painting of Saint Sebastian is one of the most original interpretations of this subject, which he painted when he was in Naples. Finson was highly influenced by Caravaggio who he met in the city. It seems likely that it was he and his compatriot Abraham Vinck (circa 1575–1619) who offered Caravaggio refuge when he arrived in the city, giving him a place to work, and also finding clients to purchase his paintings.

Born before 1580, Finson’s Italian journey must have begun some time before he is recorded in Naples in 1604. His aforementioned compatriot Abraham Vinck was a Flemish merchant and also a painter. Their partnership resulted in the two Flemish artists quickly establishing themselves in the city and developing an artistic reputation. The documentary references to Finson’s works in Naples are initially all portraits, his activity with more ambitious subjects dates from after Caravaggio’s departure.

The present painting is a demonstration of the acute foreshortening that Caravaggio adopted in his Conversion of Saint Paul in the Cerasi Chapel. Specific details of the Cerasi Chapel paintings have been linked to Louis Finson’s Four Elements (see Sotheby’s, Amsterdam, 10 May 2005, lot 92), which was painted in Naples in 1611. Similarities can be seen in the difficult compression of the left-hand personification of Water, which resembles the kneeling executioner in Caravaggio’s other painting in the chapel, the Crucifixion of Saint Peter. Foreshortening became a common concern in Rome in the first decade of the Seicento, as we can also see in Domenichino’s Liberation of Saint Peter (San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome), where the sleeping pose of the soldier is similar to that of the present Saint Sebastian, and in Carracci’s Dead Christ (Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart), which depicts Christ’s figure at an acute angle.
The present Saint Sebastian also has other details in common with the first version of Caravaggio’s Conversion of Saint Paul (Odescalchi Collection, Rome). Parallels between these two works are most identifiable in the detailed foliage and in the way that the armour has been rendered in perspective. Caravaggio painted this type of armour in other works as well, such as the Dublin Capture of Christ, and this feature became a fundamental element of Finson’s pictorial language. In addition, Caravaggio’s Saint John the Baptist (now in the Galleria Corsini, Rome) relates to Finsons’ painting; it also includes the feature of a tree trunk intersected by the edge of the composition. The French astronomer, antiquary and savant Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc (1580–1637) wrote in a letter to Méry de Vic (13 January 1614): ‘Il [Louis Finson] a toute la manière de Michel Angelo Caravaggio, et s’est nourri longtemps avec luy…’