Andrea Mantegna, The martyrdom of Saint Sebastian | Art in Tuscany | Podere Santa Pia, Holiday house in the south of Tuscany

Andrea Mantegna, Saint Sebastian

The martyrdom of Saint Sebastian is one of the most enduring themes in Western religious art. Saint Sebastian (died c. 288) was a Christian saint and martyr, who is said to have been killed during the Roman emperor Maximian's persecution of Christians. He is commonly depicted in art and literature tied to a post and shot with arrows. The execution scene so often portrayed - with the Saint transfixed with arrows - is based on the legend about his life and death during the reign of the Roman emperor, Diocletian. However, it is the symbolic association of arrows with the Black Death - during the Middle Ages and during the Renaissance - which identifies Sebastian as the patron saint of plague victims. After more than four centuries of recurrent epidemics, the plague died out in Europe; but the image of St Sebastian continued to inspire artists until the end of the 19th century.
St. Sebastian is the subject of three paintings by the Italian Early Renaissance master Andrea Mantegna. The Paduan artist lived in a period of frequent plagues; Sebastian was considered protector against the plague as having been shot through by arrows, and it was thought that plague spread abroad through the air. Some of the great Renaissance names associated with paintings of St Sebastian include Titian, Tintoretto, del Sarto, Mantegna, and del Castagno (Targat, 1979 5-25). It is significant that the figure of Sebastian was one of the few semi-nude forms permitted in early Christian art.

The martyrdom of St Sebastian was a recurring theme in Mantegna's work, favoured because it combined a religious subject with the chance to paint an athletic male nude.
In his long stay in Mantua, furthermore, Mantegna resided near the San Sebastiano church dedicated to St. Sebastian.

The St. Sebastian of Vienna
It has been suggested that the picture was made after Mantegna had recovered from the plague in Padua (1456–1457). Probably commissioned by the city's podestà to celebrate the end of the pestilence, it was finished before the artist left the city for Mantua. According to Battisti, the theme refers to the Book of Revelation. A rider is present in the clouds at the upper left corner. As specified in John's work, the cloud is white and the rider has a scythe, which he is using to cut the cloud. The rider has been interpreted as Saturn, the Roman-Greek god: in ancient times Saturn was identified with the Time that passed by and all left destroyed behind him. Instead of the classical figure of Sebastian tied to a pole in the Rome's Campo Marzio ("Martial Field"), the painter portrayed the saint against an arch, whether a triumphal arch or the gate of the city. In 1457 the painter had been trialled for "artistical inadequacy" for having put only eight apostles in his fresco of the Assumption. As a reply, he therefore applied Alberti's Classicism principles in the following pictures, including this small St. Sebastian, though deformed by the nostalgic perspective of his own. Detail of the antique city in the background of the Louvre St. Sebastian. The classical ruins are typical of Mantegna's pictures. The cliffy path, the gravel and the caves are references to the difficulties of reaching the Celestial Jerusalem, the fortified city depicted on the top of the mountain, at the upper right corner of the picture, and described in Chapter 21 of John's Book of Revelation. Characteristic of Mantegna is the clarity of the surface, the precision of an "archaeological" reproduction of the architectonical details, and the elegance of the martyr's posture. The vertical inscription at the right side of the saint is the signature of Mantegna in Greek.
Upper left corner of the painting conceals a horseman in the shape of the cloud. Mantegna used the same trick again in his Triumph of Virtue (1502).		Detail of the rider in the cloud of the Vienna St. Sebastian.
The St. Sebastian of the Louvre

Andrea Mantegna, St Sebastian, c. 1480, Musée du Louvre, Paris
The Saint Sebastian is part of the High Altar of San Zeno in Verona. Painted in dull colours, with the exception of the touches of red and yellow of the archers, shows the love of the painter for antique ruins and the precision of his careful study of the human body. Nothing is known about the circumstances of the commission and the initial destination of the imposing Saint Sebastian, acquired by the Louvre in 1910. It probably arrived at Aigueperse, in Auvergne, in the early years of 1480 on the occasion of the marriage, in 1481, of Gilbert de Bourbon-Montpensier (governor 1486-1496) and Chiara Gonzaga, daughter of Marquis Federico, perhaps as part of the exorbitant dowry given by her father. Nothing proves that it was painted for this precise event. In the 17th century it was described in praiseworthy terms in the Sainte-Chapelle, but the name of the artist was already forgotten. Before leaving Mantua, Mantegna’s Saint Sebastian seems to have impressed Bernardino da Parenzo who transposed the composition and the décor of antique ruins onto his small panel. It was rather in Auvergne that it was perhaps admired by Antonio Maineri, a painter active in Bologna, who left, if one can believe the documents, to rejoin Gilbert de Bourbon in 1481. The commission in 1490 of a Nativity from Benedetto Ghirlandaio—who we know was absent, in France—illustrates well the Italianizing taste at the court of Auvergne. However, this pleasant painting, of an anecdotal inspiration, is at the antipodes of the monumentality, of the antique vein and the theatrical effects of Mantegna’s Saint Sebastian.[3] The picture was formerly in the church at Aigueperse in Auvergne. It was taken there after being offered in 1481 as a wedding gift to the daughter of Mantegna’s patron, Federico Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua, and Gilbert de Bourbon, Count of Montpensier. The painting reflects Mantegna’s fascination for antiquity and illustrates his skill in perspective effects: the monumentality of the body of the martyred saint is heightened by the viewer’s upward-looking viewpoint. Work of religious devotion The worship of Saint Sebastian, protector against the plague, was widespread in the 15th century. Mantegna broke with traditional iconography by introducing references to antiquity. Encouraged by his teacher Squarcione and his contacts in Paduan humanist circles, he threw himself passionately into the rediscovery of antiquity. Yet his precise archaeological references in no way trammel his inventiveness, as illustrated by the column’s composite capital and the fanciful architecture in the landscape. The mixture of architectural styles expresses the continuity between the antique and Christian worlds, a theme dear to the humanists. Yet this is still a devotional work: the sculpted foot next to the saint’s feet symbolizes the triumph of Christianity over paganism via sacrifice, and the arrow-riddled body, although treated in the antique style, remains faithful to iconographic tradition. Obsession with detail The picture shows Mantegna’s perfectionist love of detail, which gave his work its admirably finished appearance but entailed slow, painstaking work. This could indicate the influence of Flemish painting, examples of which Mantegna may have seen in Ferrara as a young man. Although the use of oil paint was spreading, Mantegna preferred tempera on canvas, a refined technique whose matt effects are similar to fresco and enhance his incisive drawing, and whose opacity accentuates forms and the severity of the color. The result is close to etching, which Mantegna practiced between 1470 and 1485. The mineral coldness of the forms also evokes sculpture, the major art of the Renaissance, and Squarcione reproached his former pupil because “his paintings did not resemble living models but antique statues”. Late in life, Mantegna took this technique to the extreme by painting trompe-l’œil pictures of antique bas-reliefs. The art of trompe l'oeil Mantegna demonstrated his mastery of trompe l’œil in his depictions of architecture and sculpture (his oculus in the Camera degli Sposi in the Palazzo Ducale in Mantua). He used this painterly artifice here by adding a porphyry frame, acting as an imaginary window onto the picture space. In doing so, he was evoking the theory discussed by Alberti in his De Pictura (1435), according to which the painting is a window on reality. The two executioners, daringly cut off below the shoulders, enhance this illusionist effect, which Mantegna used in other works, including The Crucifixion (INV 368). The viewer is invited to place himself at the same height as the archers, thus adopting their point of view and humbling himself before the sculptural body of the saint towering above him. The very low vanishing point, upward-looking viewpoint and masterful foreshortening imbue the martyr with a solemn monumentality.		Andrea Mantegna, St Sebastian, c. 1480, Musée du Louvre, Paris Andrea Mantegna, St Sebastian, (detail), c. 1480, Musée du Louvre, Paris
Detail of the antique city in the background of the Louvre St. Sebastian. The classical ruins are typical of Mantegna's pictures. The cliffy path, the gravel and the caves are references to the difficulties of reaching the Celestial Jerusalem, the fortified city depicted on the top of the mountain, at the upper right corner of the picture, and described in Chapter 21 of John's Book of Revelation.

The St. Sebastian of Venice
The third St. Sebastian by Mantegna was painted some years later (c. 1490), and quite different from the previous compositions, shows a marked pessimism. The grandiose, tortured figure of the saint is depicted before a neutral, shallow background in brown colour. The artist's intentions for the work are explained by a banderol spiralling around an extinguished candle, in the lower right corner. Here, in Latin, it is written: Nihil nisi divinum stabile est. Caetera fumus ("Nothing is stable if not divine. The rest is smoke"). The inscription may have been necessary because the theme of life's fleetingness was not usually associated with pictures of Sebastian. The "M" letter formed by the crossing arrows over the saint's legs could stand for Morte ("Death") or Mantegna. In this version the imposing figure of the saint, with its almost sculptural outline, emerges with dramatic sharpness from the dark background. This extraordinarily dramatic work was painted for the bishop of Mantua Ludovico Gonzaga and was still in the artist's studio when he died. [4]		St Sebastian, c. 1506, Galleria Franchetti, Ca' d'Oro, Venice
Saint Sebastian in the Louvre Museum \| www.louvre.fr Art in Tuscany \| Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Artists \| Andrea Mantegna Giorgio Vasari \| Le vite de' più eccellenti architetti, pittori, et scultori italiani, da Cimabue insino a' tempi nostri \| Andrea Mantegna [1] Andrea Mantegna was one of the foremost north italian painters during the Renaissance period He mastered the perspective of foreshortening and made important contributions to the techniques of Renaissance painting. Mantegna became an apprentice and developed strong interests in classica antiquity. The influence of both ancient Rome and contemporary sculptors are highly evident in Mantegna's human figures. Mantegna's greatest successes were a series of frescose on the lives of St. James and St. Christopher in the Ovetari Chapel of the Church of the Eremitani. Mantegna went to Mantua shortly after to become a court painter and soon converted from religious to secular and allgorical subjects. In his master pieces, he displayed illusionistic art in new perspectives and with new limits. Mantegna had a sectacular way of carrying his figured out from the surface and making them realistic. [2] The martyrdom of St Sebastian Saint Sebastian (died c. 288) was a Christian saint and martyr, who is said to have been killed during the Roman emperor Diocletian's persecution of Christians. He is commonly depicted in art and literature tied to a post and shot with arrows. This is the most common artistic depiction of Sebastian; however, he was rescued and healed by Saint Irene of Rome before haranguing the emperor and being clubbed to death; his body was afterwards thrown into the sewer. The earliest representation of Sebastian is a mosaic in the Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo (Ravenna, Italy) dated between 527 and 565. Another early representation is in a mosaic in the Church of San Pietro in Vincoli (Rome, Italy), which was probably made in the year 682. It shows a grown, bearded man in court dress but contains no trace of an arrow. As protector of potential plague victims (a connection popularized by the Golden Legend[8]) and soldiers, Sebastian naturally occupied a very important place in the popular medieval mind, and hence was among the most frequently depicted of all saints by Late Gothic and Renaissance artists, in the period after the Black Death.[9] The opportunity to show a semi-nude male, often in a contorted pose, also made Sebastian a favourite subject. His shooting with arrows was the subject of the largest engraving by the Master of the Playing Cards in the 1430s, when there were few other current subjects with male nudes other than Christ. Sebastian appears in many other prints and paintings, although this was also due to his popularity with the faithful. Among many others, Botticelli, Perugino, Titian, Pollaiuolo, Giovanni Bellini, Guido Reni (who painted the subject seven times), Mantegna (three times), Hans Memling, Gerrit van Honthorst, Luca Signorelli, El Greco, Honoré Daumier, John Singer Sargent and Louise Bourgeois all painted Saint Sebastians. The saint is ordinarily depicted as a handsome youth pierced by arrows. There were predella scenes, when required, often of his arrest, confrontation with the Emperor, and final beheading. The illustration in the infobox is the Saint Sebastian of Il Sodoma, at the Pitti Palace, Florence. [3] Little is known about the circumstances of the commission and the initial destination of the imposing Saint Sebastian, acquired by the Louvre in 1910. It probably arrived at Aigueperse, in Auvergne, in the early years of 1480 on the occasion of the marriage, in 1481, of Gilbert de Bourbon-Montpensier (governor 1486-1496) and Chiara Gonzaga, daughter of Marquis Federico, perhaps as part of the exorbitant dowry given by her father. Nothing proves that it was painted for this precise event. In the 17th century it was described in praiseworthy terms in the Sainte-Chapelle, but the name of the artist was already forgotten. Around the Aigueperse Saint Sebastian \| www.mini-site.louvre.fr [4] The palazzo has lost much of its original substance. It was built from 1421 on in commission of Marino Contarini, son of a procurator. A predecessor building, the palazzo Zeno, which Contarini got as a dowry from his wife Sora Zeno, was pulled down. Note that some inferior sources misleadingly mention a "Doro" family having erected the palace. The name Ca'd'Oro - house of gold - is derived from the initial gildings on some façade areas. In March 1894, baron Giorgio Franchetti acquired the building. He let restore the stairway and the balconies. The original stairway of the Palazzo Contarini dalla Porta di Ferro clearly served as a model, as the similarity of the foliage-like decorations on the stairs easily proves. Franchetti compiled the rich art collection, which became - together with the entirely restored building - property of the state after his death. Today the palazzo as well as the collection can be admired in the museum. Art in Italy \| Galleria Franchetti alla Ca’ d’Oro
This page uses material from the Wikipedia articles Andrea Mantegna, Saint Sebastian and St. Sebastian (Mantegna) published under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Sources La Grande Storia dell'Arte - Il Quattrocento, Il Sole 24 Ore, 2005 Kleiner, Frank S. Gardner's Art Through the Ages, 13th Edition, 2008 Manca, Joseph. Andrea Mantegna and the Italian Renaissance, 2006 [1]
Giorgio Vasari \| Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects Art in Tuscany \| Art in Tuscany \| Giorgio Vasari \| Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects Volume III \| Filarete And Simone To Mantegna Renaissance Portrait From Donatello to Bellini' - Review - NYTimes \| www.nytimes.com '(...)The standard format in painting early on was the profile, which, however beautifully realized in works by Masaccio, Fra Filippo Lippi, Pisanello and others, appears static, like an image on a shop sign. Profiles prevailed not for lack of technical know-how, but for symbolic reasons suggested by numerous medals included in the show. Each of these circular, cast metal objects, ranging from two to four inches in diameter, has the profile of a personage on one side and eclectic imagery, including unicorns, eagles and astrological personae, on the other; copies circulated throughout Europe like high-end calling cards. They were inspired by ancient Roman coins, whose profiles of great leaders suggested transcendental timelessness. One, made by Matteo de’ Pasti for Leon Battista Alberti, pictures a disembodied eye with a wing attached on the reverse side, symbolizing a quasi-divine omniscience. So too, painted profiles rendered their subjects as idealized figures out of time. From around midcentury on, painters shifted to three-quarter and frontal formats, and the people they painted became more lifelike. Subjects started to look back at viewers or stare thoughtfully into space. They began to have an appearance of physical animation and vitality. The earliest surviving example of a three-quarter view is Andrea del Castagno’s 1450-57 picture of a man in a voluminous red robe and an early Beatles haircut who fixes his eyes on us with enigmatic intent. And Andrea Mantegna’s close-up portrait of Cardinal Ludovico Trevisan from 1459-60, in which the fierce, square-jawed cleric leans to his right and looks up to his left, projects an especially palpable feeling of a living, contemporary presence.' Giorgio Vasari \| Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects \| Andrea Mantegna
This page uses material from the Wikipedia articles Andrea Mantegna and Portrait of Cardinal Ludovico Trevisan, published under the GNU Free Documentation License. Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Andrea Mantegna.
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