A painting by Italian Renaissance master Bernardo Cavallino that set a record at Sotheby’s in New York for $3.9 million (plus buyer’s premium) was bought by the London National Gallery. The picture, whose subject is Saint Bartholomew, shows him sitting and holding a knife, is said to have been created between 1640 and 1645. The knife is a symbol of the apostle’s martyrdom because he was flayed alive, which is why it is included.
The painting by Cavallino was purchased by the museum on January 27 during a sale that fetched a hammer price of $3.2 million. It was offered for sale by renowned Old Masters collector and trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Mark Fisch, a developer. The outcome outperformed the artist’s previous record from 2018, which was $532,457 for his Saint Cecilia (1645).
According to a story by the Art Newspaper, Saint Bartholomew was purchased with money obtained by the museum’s American trustee group, American Friends of the National Gallery. The National Gallery described the painting as “one of the largest and most magnificent pieces Bernardino Cavallino ever produced and dates to the 1640s, when the Neapolitan artist was at the height of his artistic skills” in a statement announcing the purchase.
In 1988, a Sotheby’s catalogue featured a picture of the newly auctioned piece, which was then credited to an unidentified “Spanish School” artist and sold for somewhere around $280,000.
It later entered Fisch’s collection, which he put together with his girlfriend, Rachel Davidson, after going through the hands of various dealers. A bitter divorce case involving their assets had been ongoing since early this year. Last year, they sold Rembrandt’s Abraham and the Angels, which was valued at $20 million, in a private transaction at Sotheby’s.