Lot Essay
Sebastian was a Roman martyr who suffered under Diocletian. He enlisted as a soldier in Rome in about 283 A.D., and was made captain of the Pretorian Guard by Diocletian, who did not know that he was a Christian. When Sebastian championed other martyrs, the Emperor reproached him and ordered him to be shot with arrows. He survived the ordeal, confronted Diocletian for his cruelty, and was subsequently clubbed to death.
Drer went against convention in portraying the saint as a bearded old man, when 15th century art often represented him as a youthful martyr. The pose of the figure resembles that of the antique Marsyas, bound to a tree. It has been suggested, due to the fact that none of the arrows on Drer's engraving seems to overlap the figure itself, that they were a later addition. Drer's original intention, therefore, may have been to depict Marsyas, transforming him at a later stage into the popular patron saint of plague victims.
Drer went against convention in portraying the saint as a bearded old man, when 15th century art often represented him as a youthful martyr. The pose of the figure resembles that of the antique Marsyas, bound to a tree. It has been suggested, due to the fact that none of the arrows on Drer's engraving seems to overlap the figure itself, that they were a later addition. Drer's original intention, therefore, may have been to depict Marsyas, transforming him at a later stage into the popular patron saint of plague victims.