Saint Stephen

Raibolini Francesco called Francesco Francia

Bologna c. 1450. - 1517)

The painting is from the painter's youthful period and shows to what extent he absorbed the latest contemporary artistic innovations. In this regard, the panel is striking evidence of the painter's exposure to the artistic scene beyond the Apennines, not only indirectly, through the teaching of Marco Zoppo, but through a direct viewing of Florentine, Umbrian and Roman painting. This contact probably occurred in the mid-1480s, as can be inferred from the large altarpieces he painted in the following decade.

Object details

Commentary

The devotional nature of the panel is confirmed not only by the choice of subject, but also by the inscription on the cartouche at the base of the figure of the saint, leaning against some stones. These, together with the trickles of blood from his crown that drip down the side of his face, are the only references to the martyrdom that would take place.

The inscription might imply a commission from Bologna, but little is recorded about the work's provenance between the 15th and 16th centuries. An inventory entry says it was in the Florentine home of Camillo Borghese (Negro 1998, p. 133). It apparently then went to the Salviati household and from there to Francesco Borghese where it was inventoried in 1837 (Della Pergola 1955, p. 37). It does not appear in the Fideicommissary list but is among the works exchanged for the Portrait of Cesare Borgia, traditionally attributed to Raphael, and sold to Baron de Rothschild in 1891.  

There is also some disagreement as to the dating of the work, though it can definitely be attributed to Francia's youthful period, defined by Della Pergola as “conducted with a purity of soul that is identified with the calm religiosity of the image” (Della Pergola 1955, p. 37). Della Pergola, backed by the subsequent literature up to Marzocchi (2008), dates the execution of the panel on the basis of stylistic elements to around 1475, a date that ties in with the painter's early known works. Venturi related the panel to the Crucifixion in the Biblioteca Comunale, Bologna and to the Senator Bianchini Madonna in Berlin, which is dated prior to 1485. As regards the former, Bacchi saw in it a “looser and less laboured compositional structure, almost indicating a progressive move away from Hercules”. The 1490s also appears in the description given by Marzocchi who, placing the panel in the second half of the 1480s, sees in it “a less figurative and more natural chromatic fusion [...] that makes this image almost a sort of passage towards the great altarpieces of the 1490s” (Marzocchi 2008, p. 114).  

The painting is often taken as evidence of the artist's extensive knowledge of contemporary painting, probably through direct observation (Ferrara 1971, p. 87). Venturi emphasises the “pride of the goldsmith” in the convex, almost “chiselled” depiction of the outline of the martyr saint's robe, which stands out in red, applied with large brushstrokes, almost taking on the consistency of enamel (Venturi 1893, p. 67). The delicacy and refinement, worthy of a goldsmith, that made Francia's painting so successful, here applied in the yellow ornamental strips, etched almost as if by burin, and in the saint's dalmatic. This is then echoed in the acanthus leaves on the bases of the columns at the sides, a motif repeated in the parapet in the middle-ground. The painting shows the young Raibolini’s astute openness to the Florentine innovations of the Verrocchio school, while giving, in the metallic drapery of the robes, a nod towards the Ferrara school of painting. The openness of the landscape in the background is expressed, according to De Rinaldis “with the same criteria that guided the artist in the execution of the martyr at prayer” (De Rinaldis 1939, p. 42).  

Fabrizio Carinci