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Saint Sebastian Clubbed to Death

1602–49
Not on view
Pierre-Jean Mariette, one of its early owners, attributed this drawing to Aniello Falcone, perhaps influenced by the Neapolitan biographer De Dominici, who commented that Falcone's drawing style was sometimes mistaken for that of Andrea Sacchi. Sacchi's classicizing influence is indeed evident in this drawing, which, as Ann Sutherland Harris has pointed out, is Andrea Camassei's study for an altarpiece in the church of San Sebastiano alla Polveriera, Rome, for which the artist was paid in 1633. In the painting the nude body of Sebastian bears the arrows of the first phase of his martyrdom. Here, the angels on clouds carry the arrows, at upper left. In both the painting and the drawing the Colosseum appears in the right background approximately where it actually stands in relation to the church, which is on the Palatine.
(Carmen C. Bambach, 2014)

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Saint Sebastian Clubbed to Death
  • Artist: Andrea Camassei (Italian, Bevagna, near Foligno 1602–1649 Rome)
  • Date: 1602–49
  • Medium: Red chalk, over some faint traces of black chalk
  • Dimensions: 18-1/8 x 12 in. (46.0 x 30.5 cm)
  • Classification: Drawings
  • Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1965
  • Object Number: 65.137
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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