St Sebastien (Mantegna)

Saint Sebastien is the subject of three tables of the Master of the Renaissance Italian Andrea Mantegna. The artist of Padoue lived at one period of frequent epidemics of Plague and holy Sebastien, which survived its death sentence by sagittation, was regarded as a guard against this disease. At the time of its long stay with Mantoue Mantegna resided close to the church dedicated to St Sebastien.

The St Sebastien of Vienna

It is supposed that this image was created after Mantegna survived the Black Death with Padoue (1456-1457). Probably a ordering of the Podestat of the city to celebrate the end of the epidemic, it was finished before the artist does not leave for Mantoue.

According to Battisti, the topic takes as a starting point the Apocalypse of Jean . A rider is represented in the clouds with the left higher corner. As specified in the work allotted to St Jean, the cloud is white and the rider holds a Faux to cut the cloud. The rider could represent Saturn, the god gréco-Roman symbol, at the time, of the Temps which pass and all that it leaves destroyed behind him.

Instead of the traditional figure of Sebastien attached to a post of the Champ de Mars, it is represented here against an arc, either a triumphal arch or a door of the city. In 1457, the painter is attacked by the Church to have painted only eight apostles in his fresco of the Assomption. As an answer, it applied the principles of the Classicisme of Alberti in its posterior works, of which this small St Sebastien , affected by his clean nostagie.

The principal caratéristiques ones of the style of Mantegna are the purity of surface, the precision " archéologique" of its reproduction of the architectural details and the elegance of the posture of martyrdom.

The signature of Mantegna is registered, in Greek, with the vertical, on the right of the saint.

The St Sebastien of Louvre

The St Sebastien of Louvre formed formerly part of the retable of San Zeno of Vérone. Towards the end of the 17th-beginning 18th century, one finds it in the Ste Chapelle of Aigueperse, in Auvergne, at the time of the marriage of Chiara de Gonzague, girl of Frederic Ier de Mantoue, with Gilbert de Montpensier, Dauphin of Auvergne in 1486.

The image illustrates probably the topic of the Athlète of God inspired by a Sermon apocryphal book of Saint Augustin. The saint, attache with an ancient arc is observed of a prospect unusually low, chosen by the artist to reinforce the impression of solidity and domination of the subject. The head and the eyes turned towards the Sky confirm the firmness of St Sebastien in the suffering of martyrdom. With its feet, the two archers create a contrast between the man of transcendent faith and those which are attracted only by profane pleasures.

In addition to symbolism, the image is characterized by the precision of the representation of the ancient ruins and by the realistic details such as this fig tree beside the column and the anatomy of the saint.

The St Sebastien of Venice

Third St Sebastien de Mantegna paints a few years later, about 1490, very different from the preceding compositions, indicates a marked pessimism. The representation of the tortured saint is essential in front of a brown, dark and neutral bottom. The artist explains his intentions in the streamer rolled up around the extinct candle, with the corner lower right. He is written there in Latin: Nihili nisi divinum stabile is. Coetera fumus (" Nothing is permanent if it is not divine. The remainder is only fumée"). The fact that the topic of the fugacity of the life is generally not associated with the images of St Sebastien appears to justify the need for this inscription.

The letter M formed by the arrows crossed on the legs of the martyr could mean Morte (" Mort") or Mantegna .

References

External bonds

Discussion on these three representations
educational on Mantegna and the St-Sebastien of Louvre (site with nonlucrative goal)

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