Saint Sebastian (1995-330)

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Master of the Greenville Tondo, Italian, active 1500–1510
formerly attributed to Perugino (Pietro di Cristoforo Vannucci), Italian, 1450–1523

Saint Sebastian, ca. 1500–1510

Oil on wood panel transferred to canvas on pressed-wood panel

76.7 x 53.4 cm (30 3/16 x 21 in.) frame: 99.1 x 75.9 x 8.3 cm (39 x 29 7/8 x 3 1/4 in.)

Gift of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation to the New Jersey State Museum; transferred to the Princeton University Art Museum

1995-330

About the Object

Inscribed on loincloth: SACIO[?]

Gallery Label

Saint Sebastian of Milan, a Christian soldier in the imperial army, was marked for execution during the rule of the emperor Diocletian for converting new believers and fortifying martyrs in their faith. Although the emperor ordered Sebastian to be tied to a post and shot with arrows, the saint miraculously survived. Images of this episode, rather than Sebastian’s martyrdom by beating, were used to protect against the plague. Saint Sebastian provided Renaissance artists an opportunity to depict youthful male anatomy. This unidentified Umbrian artist derived the martyr’s pose and anatomical characteristics from Pietro Perugino’s Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian altarpiece in San Sebastiano at Panicale, eliminating extraneous narrative detail. He renders as a single piercing the bombardment of arrows said to have struck the saint, focusing on one spot that evokes the saint’s efficacy against the plague—the groin, where the Black Death’s pustules manifested themselves.

Bibliography

Sarah Arvio, "Master and torso", Society of Fellows of the American Academy in Rome news (Fall, 2009).

Raffaella Zama, Girolamo Marchesi da Cotignola: pittore: catalogo generale, (Rimini: Luisè, 2007).

Annette Rupprecht and Sheri Francis Shaneyfelt, "School of Pietro Perugino, Saint Sebastian", in Studying and conserving paintings : occasional papers on the Samuel H. Kress Collection, (London: Archetype Publications: in association with the Conservation Center of the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, 2006).

Joseph Antenucci Becherer, Pietro Perugino: master of the Italian Renaissance, (New York: Rizzoli International; Grand Rapids, MI: Grand Rapids Art Museum, 1997).

"Acquisitions of the Art Museum 1995," Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 56, no. 1/2 (1997): p. 36-74.

Filippo Todini, La pittura umbra: dal Duecento al primo Cinquecento, (Milano: Longanesi, 1989).

Fern Rusk Shapley, Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian schools, (London: Phaidon Press for the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, 1966-1973).

Wilhelm Suida, Catalogue: (Samuel H. Kress Collection), Philadelphia Museum of Art bulletin 46, no. 227 (Autumn, 1950): p. 2-23.

Herbert Cook, ed., A catalogue of the paintings: at Doughty House, Richmond & elsewhere in the collection of Sir Frederick Cook, (London: William Heinemann, 1913).

Works by the old masters, and by deceased masters of the British school: including a special selection from the works of Sir A.W. Callcott, R.A., and D. Maclise, R.A., (London: Royal Academy of Arts, 1875).