St. Sebastian
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Authors
Giovanni Marigliano (known as Giovanni da Nola)
Date
Type
Image
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Keyword
St. Sebastian
Alternative Title
Abstract
This painted wood sculpture is in good condition, with a few minor losses, most obviously the arrows (probably originally made of metal) that once pierced Sebastian's flesh in 12 places. The figure also originally stood before a representation of a tree, to which the saint is generally shown tied. Sebastian is here a lovely, muscular young man, standing in a relaxed contrapposto, despite his torments. His face is idealized and smooth, with an unfurrowed brow framed by a mane of curly hair. His short loincloth slips low, barely covering his torso. According to the very popular Golden Legend, Sebastian was an old, bearded man by the time of his torments, and he was shot with so many arrows that he looked like a porcupine. In the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries in Italy, however, Sebastian was often shown as he is here, as an idealized beautiful young hero. This sculpture can be attributed on the basis of style to Giovanni Marigliano (known as Giovanni da Nola), a sculptor who trained in Naples under the Lombard sculptor Pietro Belverte, and was listed as an independent ""master"" in 1511. (This sculpture was likely completed at around this time, early in Marigliano's career.) In addition to local classicizing images, Marigliano could also have known such Tuscan models as the sculpture of St. Sebastian by Benedetto da Maiano, which was brought through Naples in 1491 on its way to Reggio Calabria. (Benedetto's marble sculpture has a more pronounced swaying stance and fewer arrows, but exhibits a similar masculine ideal of beauty.) These photographs were taken when the work was in an exhibition at the Palazzo Lanfranchi in Matera in 2019. Currently housed in the Museo nazionale d'arte medievale e moderna della Basilicata, the works comes from the Castello at Melfi, in Basilicata. Photograph(s) licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Description
Museo nazionale d'arte medievale e moderna della Basilicata, Matera; Castello, Melfi
Citation
Dora Catalano, Matteo Ceriana, Pierluigi Leone de Castris, and Marta Ragozzino, Il rinascimento visto dal sud: Materia, l'Italia meridionale e il Mediterraneo tra '400 e '500, exh. cat. (Matera: Palazzo Lanfranchi, 2019), cat. 9.3 p 484.