st.sebastian
...er of this city. “Perhaps, by the opinion of every intelligent person, there was never a better one.” Lorenzo de’ Medici said. (Hartt 322) Historical Background of The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian is a monumental altarpiece for the Pucci family chapel at Santissima Annuziata, Florence. Saint Sebastian, also known as Sebastianus, a Roman martyr, son of a wealthy Roman family, was sentenced death by the Roman authority due to his blief in Christianity. He was born at Narbonne, in Gaul, but his family was from Milan, Italy where he was raised. He was a fervent servant of Christ. To avoid the suspicion of being a Christian, he went to Rome and entered the army under the emperor Carinus in about 283 AD. Soon, he became a member of the elite Praetorian Guard in charge of protecting the Roman emperor, Diocletian. During the Great Persecution, Christians were harshly oppressed and widely arrested. Saint Sebastian secretly visited the prisoners and provided supplies and encouragement to them. His actions were soon discovered. Favored by Diocletian, the emperor begged him to renounce Christianity and worship the roman gods again. He refused. In 288 AD. , Saint Sebastian was delivered to the archers, tied to a tree and shot to death. His body was covered with arrows and left for dead. “Sebastianus especially, a captain of the praetorian guards, who was distinguished by his extraordinary merit, made a noble confession of his faith in presence of the court, and confounded has persecutors by suffering martyrdom, not only with courage and patience, but with joy and pleasure.” (de Serviez 379) Irine, the widow of Saint Castulus, was going to bury him. She discovered that Saint Sebastian was still alive and took him back to her house. With her care, he soon recovered. Then he decided to approach the emperor to preach and declare the unjust treatment to the Christians. The speech of a person who supposedly died greatly astonished the emperor; but, recovering from his surprise, he gave order to seize Saint Sebastian and had him beaten to death with cudgels. His body was thrown into the sewer. Later, he was buried in the catacombs. During the 14th century, the Black Death caused people to associate the plague to their villages with being shot by an army of nature’s archers. In desperation, they prayed for the intercession of a saint associated with arrows; therefore, Saint Sebastian became linked with plague. Visual Analysis Like most of the Renaissance paintings, Antonio’s The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian was painted symmetrically. Saint Sebastian’s figure and the tree divide the painting into two parts; each part has the same or similar elements, which makes the painting more balanced. On the left side of the foreground, there are three archers standing or bending below Saint Sebastian’s figure, and two knights and a roman building placed in the middle ground. The right half is almost the same. Instead of a building, a rocky cliff occupies the same portion in the painting. Except for the first pair, one can easily tell that the rest of the archers are paired. One pair of archers stand or bend in the same pose, but were drawn in different angles. The color of red, green, blue and gray were repeatedly used in the archers’ clothing. Compared to Saint Sebastian’s paleness, their colorful clothing highlights his purity; their contorted body positions and twisted facial expressions signify their evil intent. Saint Sebastian himself is tied to a tree and placed in the middle-top of the painting. Higher than the archers, the Saint shows his holy quality, which is distinguished from their caddish. The arrows pierce his body, but his face shows no pain, but sorrow. He stares at the sky as if waiting for the salvation from God. The muscular definition of the figures demonstrates Antonio’s terrific skill in describing the human body anatomically. Antonio applied one point perspective in the painting. The edge of the roman building leads to a single vanishing point which is located in ...