St Sebastian
The original, as its museum records it
Every line above is reproduced from the holding institution’s own catalogue entry, which is linked. Where their title, date or attribution differs from ours, theirs is the one printed here.
The file this print is made from
Sizes
About this painting
He stands unbroken among broken stone. Diocletian's archers loosed their volley when Sebastian's hidden Christian faith was discovered; tradition holds he survived it, nursed by Irene of Rome, killed only later by clubbing. So this is endurance, not death: the saint upright and statuesque, seen from below, two archers crouched at his feet.
A painted porphyry border frames him like a relic in its shrine. Roman ruins crumble around him, the old order broken, faith standing whole.
The painting surfaces first in a chapel at Aigueperse, Auvergne.
Sources: Louvre object page describes trompe-l'oeil porphyry border framing the scene · Louvre Mantegna mini-site: monumentality, crumbling classical ruins, commission circumstances unknown · Veronica White (Curatorial Assistant for Academic Programs), "Saint Sebastian," Princeton University Art Museum, Stories & Perspectives · Jacobus de Voragine, The Golden Legend (Legenda aurea), ch. 23, "Of St Sebastian," trans. William Caxton, 1483 — primary text, cited by locator · Musée du Louvre, notice d'œuvre « Saint Sébastien » (louvre.fr/oeuvre-notices/saint-sebastien-0); the Louvre page is retired, but its text is reproduced in full and credited « D'après www.louvre.fr » by HdA Lab (IRI / Histoire des arts, ministère de la Culture) · Julien Noblet and Laurent Vissière, « Autour du Saint Sébastien d'Aigueperse : la Renaissance italienne dans l'Auvergne du XVe siècle », La Revue des Musées de France. Revue du Louvre, 1-2008, p. 42
Printed on demand. Public-domain masterwork, reproduced from a 6,425 px master of the original. The whole image is printed — never cropped to fit the sheet — so every sheet carries an archival margin, and the dimensions and resolution listed above are the ones you receive.