''Saint Sebastian'' is a c.1495 painting of

Saint Sebastian Saint Sebastian (in Latin: ''Sebastianus''; Narbo, Gallia Narbonensis, Roman Empire c. AD 255 – Rome, Italia, Roman Empire c. AD 288) was an early Christian saint and martyr. According to traditional belief, he was killed during the Dioclet ...

Perugino Pietro Perugino (, ; – 1523), born Pietro Vannucci, was an Italian Renaissance painter of the Umbrian school, who developed some of the qualities that found classic expression in the High Renaissance. Raphael was his most famous pupil. Ear ...

, now in the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

collection.Saint Sébastien
Louvre collections It was temporarily on display at the

Louvre-Lens The Louvre-Lens is an art museum located in Lens, France, approximately 200 kilometers north of Paris. It displays objects from the collections of the Musée du Louvre that are lent to the gallery on a medium- or long-term basis. The Louvre-Lens ...

branch between 2012 and 2017. It is probably the work mentioned in the 17th century inventory of the

Barberini The House of Barberini are a family of the Italian nobility that rose to prominence in 17th century Rome. Their influence peaked with the election of Cardinal Maffeo Barberini to the papal throne in 1623, as Pope Urban VIII. Their urban palace ...

collection in Rome, which was later dispersed. Several pieces from it were taken abroad during the 19th century, with ''St Sebastian'' being bought by the Louvre in 1896. It shows the saint in a

contraposto ''Contrapposto'' () is an Italian term that means "counterpoise". It is used in the visual arts to describe a human figure standing with most of its weight on one foot, so that its shoulders and arms twist off-axis from the hips and legs in the a ...

pose drawn from the

Doryphoros The ''Doryphoros'' (Greek Δορυφόρος Classical Greek , "Spear-Bearer"; Latinised as ''Doryphorus'') of Polykleitos is one of the best known Greek sculptures of Classical antiquity, depicting a solidly built, muscular, standing warrior, o ...

Polykleitos Polykleitos ( grc, Πολύκλειτος) was an ancient Greek sculptor in bronze of the 5th century BCE. Alongside the Athenian sculptors Pheidias, Myron and Praxiteles, he is considered one of the most important sculptors of classical antiqu ...

, echoed in a later autograph copy now in São Paulo. The symmetrical composition draws on Perugino's earlier works - he first used the motif in '' St Sebastian between St Roch and St Peter'', a fresco painted in Cerqueto near Perugia. He stands on a terrace beneath a monumental arch with

grotesque Since at least the 18th century (in French and German as well as English), grotesque has come to be used as a general adjective for the strange, mysterious, magnificent, fantastic, hideous, ugly, incongruous, unpleasant, or disgusting, and thus ...

-decorated pilasters and a balustrade. On the base of the platform is the Latin inscription "SAGITTAE. TUAE.INFIXAE. SUNT. MICHI", drawn from Psalm 38:2 ("Thy arrows are fixed in me"). The deep landscape background is typical of the artist, with wooded hills and mountains. To the left are a ruined vault and pillar, symbolising the downfall of the pagan world.

References

Bibliography

* Vittoria Garibaldi, ''Perugino'', in ''Pittori del Rinascimento'', Scala, Florence, 2004 {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Sebastian (Perugino, Louvre) category:Paintings by Pietro Perugino category:1495 paintings Paintings in the Louvre by Italian artists