''Saint Sebastian'' is a painting of the eponymous Christian saint by the

Italian Renaissance The Italian Renaissance ( ) was a period in History of Italy, Italian history between the 14th and 16th centuries. The period is known for the initial development of the broader Renaissance culture that spread across Western Europe and marked t ...

painter

Sandro Botticelli Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi ( – May 17, 1510), better known as Sandro Botticelli ( ; ) or simply known as Botticelli, was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. Botticelli's posthumous reputation suffered until the late 1 ...

, executed before January 1474 when it was endowed to the church of

Santa Maria Maggiore, Florence Santa Maria Maggiore di Firenze is a Romanesque and Gothic-style, Roman Catholic church in Florence, region of Tuscany, Italy. This is among the oldest extant churches in Florence. History The church was originally constructed in the 11th cen ...

. Today the panel is housed in the Gemäldegalerie in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

Criticism and influence

Kenneth Clark Kenneth Mackenzie Clark, Baron Clark (13 July 1903 – 21 May 1983) was a British art historian, museum director and broadcaster. His expertise covered a wide range of artists and periods, but he is particularly associated with Italian Renaissa ...

considered this picture remarkable for its closeness to the spirit of harmonious repose found in

classical sculpture Classical sculpture (usually with a lower case "c") refers generally to sculpture from Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, as well as the Hellenized and Romanized civilizations under their rule or influence, from about 500 BC to around 200 AD. It ...

There are several reasons why for fifty years or more Donatello's ''David'' had no successors ... Another is the inherent restlessness of the Florentine temperament.
Apollo Apollo is one of the Twelve Olympians, Olympian deities in Ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek and Ancient Roman religion, Roman religion and Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, mu ...
is static. His gestures are dignified and calm. But the Florentines loved movement, the more violent the better. The two great masters of the nude in the late ''quattrocento'',
Pollaiuolo Pollaiolo or Pollaiuolo is the name of several people, including: * Antonio del Pollaiuolo (1429/1433–1498), Italian Renaissance artist in goldsmithing, sculpture and painting * Piero del Pollaiuolo (1443–1496), Italian Renaissance painter, you ...
and Botticelli, are concerned with embodiments of energy or ecstatic motion, with a wrestling Hercules or a flying angel, and only once, in Botticelli's ''St. Sebastian'', achieve a satisfactory nude in repose.

Rainer Maria Rilke René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926), known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was an Austrian poet and novelist. Acclaimed as an Idiosyncrasy, idiosyncratic and expressive poet, he is widely recognized as ...

's poem "Sankt Sebastian" (in ''Neue Gedichte'', 1907) seems to have a close correspondence in description and mood to Botticelli's painting, as Rilke's translator J. B. Leishman and Jane Davidson Reid have observed.Jane Davidson Reid, "Rilke's Sebastian and the Painters", ''Art Journal'' 27 (1967), pp. 24–33 + 39.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Sebastian (Botticelli) 1474 paintings Paintings by Sandro Botticelli Paintings in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin

Botticelli Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi ( – May 17, 1510), better known as Sandro Botticelli ( ; ) or simply known as Botticelli, was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. Botticelli's posthumous reputation suffered until the late 1 ...

Torture in art

Criticism and influence

See also

Notes

External links