Ambrogio Borgognone

We are grateful to Everett Fahy and to Professor Mauro Natale for independently proposing the attribution (on the basis of digital images); Professor Natale suggests a dating around 1505/1510.
We are grateful to Everett Fahy for pointing out that this fragment may have been cut down from the polyptych that included two papal saints, Gaudenzio and Urbano, in the Saibene Collection, Milan (71 x 42 cm. each). Those are three-quarter-length figures, also standing before clear blue backgrounds, which is fairly rare for Bergognone, whose saints usually stand in architectural settings. Furthermore, the halo. like those of the Saibene saints, is executed in shell gold over a tan base, and the lettering of Sebastian’s name and the elaborate pattern decorating the halo are almost identical to those on the papal saints (seeA. Ferrari, "Ambrogio da Fossano, detto il Bergognone," in Altri quaranta dipinti antichi della Collezione Saibene, ed. G. Agosti, Verona 2008, pp. 150-61).