Pilgrims at the Tomb of St Sebastian

1497 · Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Rome

religious

Before he was definitively identified as Lieferinxe, this painter of the Provençal 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.

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About the Artist

Josse Lieferinxe

Flemish painter, active in France. A native of Hainaut, in the diocese of Cambrai, he may have come from Lieferinge near Enghien. He is documented in Marseille and Aix-en-Provence from 1493 to 1505, often being described as a 'Picard painter'. In 1503 he married Michelle, one of the daughters of Jean Changenet, the most prominent painter of the time in Avignon, with whom he may have trained. The last great representative of the 'School of Avignon', Lieferinxe appears to have concentrated on the production of altarpieces.

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