St. Sebastian
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Authors
Stefano da Putignano
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Keyword
St. Sebastian
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Abstract
Stefano da Putignano's sculpture of St. Sebastian was moved from its original location to the newly built church of San Sebastiano in Putignano in the early sixteenth century and then to the Chiesa Matrice of San Pietro, where it stands today. The stylized hair and the attention paid to the drapery of St. Sebastian's loincloth are characteristic of Stefano da Putignano's work, and recent restoration has revealed that the work is signed and dated on the base, but the last number of the date has been lost to damage, and so we only know that the work must have been completed in the 1490s. While the front view seems more relaxed, the side view shows the tension in the arms and the sharply curved back and protruding chest. The dynamism of the pose, unusual for Stefano da Putignano, especially this early in his career, has led scholars to search for models, including prints of Mantegna's St Sebastian (Louvre), Silvestro dell'Aquila's sculpture of St. Sebastian from 1478 (Museo Nazionale dell'Abruzzo, Aquila) or a sculpture in the Chiesa Matrice of Miglionico that Gelao attributes to a Venetian sculptor. Artists, patrons and images travelled along the Adriatic coast, particularly between Venice and Puglia. Stefano has emphasized the classically-inspired beauty of this muscular, clean-shaven young man, with his undisturbed smooth face and luxuriant locks of hair. Texts, such as the very popular Golden Legend, describe Sebastian as old and bearded, shot with so many arrows that he resembled a porcupine, but in the Renaissance, Sebastian is often shown as a young nude hero, almost sensual in his loveliness, as he is here. Often, the arrows in such statues do not survive, but here the stone statue is still pierced by metal arrows. The paint is partly extant on the loincloth, bindings, and hair, but seems to survive less well in other areas, as, for example, no blood is shown coming from the wounds, and the pupils do not seem to have surviving paint. Photograph(s) licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Description
San Sebastiano, Putignano; Chiesa Matrice, Putignano
Citation
Clara Gelao, Stefano da Putignano ""virtuoso"" scultore del rinascimento (Bari: Mario Adda, 2020), 51-6; Fabrizio Vona, ""La policromia nella scultura pugliese del Rinascimento. Esempi e problemi."" in Scultura del rinascimento in Puglia, ed. Clara Gelao (Bari: Edipuglia, 2004), 191; Clara Gelao, Stefano da Putignano nella scultura pugliese del rinascimento (Fasano di Brindisi: Schena, 1990), cat. 2, pp. 56-7.