The ‘lost’ painting by Peter Paul Rubens can be sold for 7.7 million dollars
A painting by Rubens that was lost to history and misidentified for nearly 300 years has resurfaced using X-ray analysis and could now fetch up to £6 million (US$7.7 million) at auction next month.
Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens completed “Saint Sebastian Cared for by Two Angels” more than 400 years ago.
His brush strokes depict the story of the Roman soldier Sebastian, pierced by soldier arrows and left to die after converting to Christianity, before angels miraculously intervened.
It left a “powerful impression” on George Gordon, Sotheby’s co-chair of old master paintings worldwide, when he first saw it at an exhibition.
“It’s the vibrancy of the brushwork,” Gordon told CNN. “So it was easy to appreciate the speed and liveliness with which it was painted, which seemed to me to speak very strongly for Rubens’ own brush.”
Probably commissioned by the Italian nobleman and military commander Ambrogio Spinola, the painting was believed to have been completed in Italy around 1606-8, or in Antwerp around 1609-10 once Rubens had returned to his hometown.
“Ambrogio Spinola was … a soldier who fought a war of religion. He was a devout Catholic and that’s why you have this holy choice,” said Gordon, “because when (Sebastian’s) faith became clear and he refused to denounce it, had he been sentenced to be tortured … it would have been an appropriate subject for Spinola to commission.
The Spinola family were great patrons and friends of Rubens, Gordon added.
The painting disappeared from recorded history in the 1730s as it passed from the family name and through the female lineage, until it reappeared in Missouri in 1963. It was later acquired by its current owner at auction in 2008 where it was misidentified. like a painting by Laurent de la Hyre, a French artist.
X-ray ANALYSIS
X-ray analysis performed in April revealed that the painting was the work of Rubens and, most importantly, the original version of the composition. Previously, that title was held by a painting in the collection of the Corsini family, which now hangs in the Galleria Corsini, Rome.
Analysis revealed changes beneath the final painting as Rubens first shaped and molded his design to perfection. For example, Rubens initially painted Saint Sebastian facing the other side, while in the final form of the painting he omitted another arrow that pierced the saint’s right thigh.
“Rubens was one of the most famous, greatest painters of the 17th century,” Gordon said, “and a painter who was really at the forefront of the development of the Baroque as an art style.”
The artwork will go under the hammer in London on July 5 and is estimated to fetch between £4 and £6 million.
