Saint Sebastian
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.Berruguete’s Saint Sebastian refers to Michelangelo’s Dying Slave (1513–16), the eroticized image of a nude youth that the Spanish sculptor would have seen during his training in Italy. As sculptural naturalism was increasingly used to express the human beauty of the protagonists of the Christian story, Church commentators grew anxious about the nudity of the crucified Christ or of certain saints. They feared that imaginative empathy might lead members of a congregation to the wrong kind of desire. Ecstatic languor, passivity, and pain might be misunderstood. This erotic confusion became all the more intense when color, clinging fabric, and rope were introduced, and when the sculpture was animated by candlelight.
Artwork Details
- Title: Saint Sebastian
- Artist: Alonso Berruguete (Spanish, Parades de Nava (Palencia) ca. 1488–1561 Toledo)
- Date: mid 16th century
- Culture: Spanish
- Medium: Polychromed wood and parcel-gilding
- Dimensions: confirmed: 64 9/16 × 16 1/8 × 20 1/16 in. (164 × 41 × 51 cm)
- Classification: Sculpture
- Credit Line: Courtesy of Colnaghi, London
- Curatorial Department: European Sculpture and Decorative Arts