LIEFERINXE, Josse

The painting style of Lieferinxe, despite his Flemish training, fits most closely with the Avignonese school, and reveals connections to the Bramantesque culture of Lombardy.

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Before he was definitively identified as Lieferinxe, this painter of the Proven�al school was given the name The Master of St Sebastian, after an ancon that he painted with images of Sts Sebastian and Roche, the protectors against the plague. Decorated with eight scenes of the life of St Sebastian, this devotional object was commissioned in 1497 for the church of Notre Dame des Accoules in Marseilles. Lieferinxe, born in Hainaut, Cambrai, and active in Marseille and Aix-en-Provence, took over painting when the original artist, Bernardino Simondi, died before finishing the work. Aside from this example, other panels from the same project can be found in the museums in Philadelphia (Philadelphia Museum of Art), St. Petersburg (Hermitage), and Baltimore (Walters Art Gallery). The Rome panel, together with one of the Philadelphia panels and the one from Baltimore, comprised the right section of the great ancon.

The painting style of Lieferinxe, despite his Flemish training, fits most closely with the Avignonese school, and reveals connections to the Bramantesque culture of Lombardy.

There are seven surviving panels of a St Sebastian cycle in various collections. The painter of the cycle, first named as the Master of St Sebastian, was identified as Joss Lieferinxe, a painter from Hainaut active in Marseilles and Aix between 1493 and 1508. A document of 1497 records an altarpiece with eight pieces from the life of St Sebastian flanking a centrepiece depicting Sebastian between Sts Anthony and Roch. Two artists were named in the contract, Lieferinxe and Bernardino Simondi of Piedmont. After the death of Simondi in the same year, Lieferinxe completed the project alone.