Saint Sebastian
Artist: Gerrit van Honthorst (Dutch, 1592 - 1656)
Original Dimensions: 39 3/4" x 46 1/8"
Location: National Gallery of Art, London
About Artwork: (About 1623) "Four bloody arrows pierce Saint Sebastian’s seemingly lifeless body. One has stabbed through his leg, and a stream of blood seems to enter our space from its tip. The saint was a Roman centurion who converted to Christianity and, in punishment, the Roman Emperor Diocletian ordered Sebastian’s fellow soldiers to tie him to a post and shoot him with arrows. Honthorst must have seen many depictions of the saint’s martyrdom during the period that he worked in Rome, but he likely painted this work a few years after he returned to his native Utrecht in 1620. There were a number of outbreaks of the plague in Utrecht between 1624 and 1626, and Sebastian was revered as a ‘plague saint’, believed to offer protection against the deadly and highly contagious disease." - (National Gallery of Art, London)

Panel content
Panel content