Saint Sebastian

This composition recalls the deposition of Christ, the moment in the Christian tradition where Jesus’ body was taken down from the cross and mourned. However, it is not Christ who appears in this painting, but Saint Sebastian (c.255-c.288), a Roman soldier condemned to death for preaching Christianity by Emperor Diocletian. A large cross breaks through the dark clouds to flood the scene with a divine golden light, illuminating the wounded Saint below in honeyed tones, identifiable by the arrows which pierce his torso. Tied to a tree and shot by archers, Saint Sebastian in fact survived his wounds and was discovered by Saint Irene – the figure on the right in this painting. With his head lolling back, eyes rolling and a drained pallor, Sebastian appears to be caught between life and death. The red fabric that swathes his body recalls violence and bloodshed, but the arrow resting on his discarded armour directs our attention to the calm figure of Irene, who is delicately extracting a second arrow. She holds Sebastian’s hand in hers, their fingers intricately entwined. The standing female figure who tenderly supports his body is an allegorical representation of the virtue, Faith, symbolised by the cross and chalice. Faith holds Sebastian steady, her fingertips making light impressions in his flesh.  

His miraculous survival meant that Saint Sebastian became one of the most revered saints, often called upon during times of plague. In early artistic representations, Sebastian was shown with many arrows piercing his body and armour, but by the seventeenth century his wounds are greatly reduced, with artists taking the opportunity instead to depict the youthful saint as an ideal of male beauty. With a close crop, theatrical lighting and a tortured pose, the Venetian artist Antonio Bellucci (1654-1726) has infused this representation with Baroque styling that makes the Saint’s body appear almost like a sculpture. An established artist in northern Italy, Bellucci travelled across Europe, working in England from 1716 to 1722, where he completed several interior schemes in the Italian grand-manner style, and perhaps this painting too.