Lot 7: ALEJO FERNÁNDEZ

ALEJO FERNÁNDEZ SEVILLE CIRCA 1475 - 1543 THE DECAPITATION OF SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST oil on panel 108 by 80 cm.; 42 1/2 by 31 1/2 in.

Probably painted towards the end of the 1520s, this panel by the Sevillian painter Alejo Fernández has only recently come to light. Stylistically it compares extremely closely with Alejo's panels in the church of San Juan, Marchena, depicting, again, a Beheading of St. John along with a Wedding at Cana, which were executed between 1521 and 1523.υ1 It is with the Beheading that the relationship can be best discerned, notably in the figures themselves, and especially in those of Salome and her attendants. The design of the executioner exactly follows that of his counterpart in Albrecht Dürer's engraving of the The Martyrdom of Saint Catherine, of 1497. The pose of St. John too, is clearly based on that of the kneeling Saint Catherine, albeit more loosely.

1. See D. Angulo-Iñiguez, Alejo Fernandez, Seville 1946, plates 46 and 47.