Altarpiece of the Nice school, early 16th century

Altarpiece of the school of Nice, early 16th century.
"Life of Saint Sebastian".
Polychrome walnut panels.
Provenance: Collection of Count J. de B.; Chapel near Aix-en-Provence.
19th century frame.
It shows old restorations and wear: the lower columns and the plinth are later additions.
Measurements: 150 x 190 cm; 89.5 x 63.5 cm (central panel of St. Sebastian).

With a marked Italian influence, this ensemble belongs to the production of the itinerant masters from Nice, Piedmont or Liguria, who during the 15th and 16th centuries decorated the votive chapels in the valleys of the interior of the Var. These spaces, characterized by their single nave architecture with wooden roofs or barrel vaults, were mostly devoted to the cult of St. Roch and St. Sebastian as intercessors against the plague, decorating their walls with hagiographic cycles similar to those of the chapels of Roubion or Venanson. Although most of these works are anonymous, the altarpiece of Saint Sebastian in Entraunes (1516), signed by the Ligurian Andrea de Cella, serves as a direct reference for our example; its coincidence in format and iconographic distribution allows us to date this piece to the same period of the first quarter of the 16th century.

Iconographically, the altarpiece is defined by its powerful narrative. On the one hand, in its center it has the image of Saint Sebastian holding a bow in his left hand and an arrow in his right hand. The lateral sections represent four scenes from the life of Saint Sebastian, arranged in two superimposed registers. On its left side is represented the Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian, above it (top left) Saint Sebastian led before Diocletian; on the right Saint Sebastian scourged, above it (top right), Saint Sebastian reassures the parents of Marcellianus and Mark at the moment of his condemnation to death. Above these five scenes is an upper register with the image of Christ on the cross between the Virgin and St. John the Evangelist in the center, to the left the angel of the Annunciation and to the right the Virgin of the Annunciation.

With the exception of the Annunciation, all the narrative scenes are crowned by a pointed arcade adorned with gilded wooden finials. Calvary, in which Christ on the cross is attended by the Virgin and St. John the Evangelist in a posture of humility, is set against the light of a wooded landscape, while the scene of the Annunciation takes place inside the Virgin's house. In the main register, in the central panel, Saint Sebastian, dressed in military attire, holds in his hands the bow and arrow, instruments of his martyrdom. He is standing on a colonnaded gallery that opens onto a wide landscape.

The side scenes relate various episodes of the saint's life narrated in the Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine.