Griffin Oleynick at Commonweal:
At first glance, there is something cold and formal about the portrait. Raphael’s Saint Sebastian in Half-Length, painted around 1503, when the artist was nineteen, departs radically from traditional iconography of the saint. Gone is the dramatic tension, gone are the visual pleasures that made paintings of Sebastian so popular during the Renaissance: no muscly torso pierced with arrows, no wide-eyed gaze directed skyward, no mouth agape in pain or ecstasy.
Instead we find a tight-lipped, androgynous youth, a gold chain draped over his embroidered blue velvet frock and red cloak. Behind him, forested green hills roll into misty blue mountains. Sebastian, head slightly tilted, eyes half-lidded, is peaceful but aloof. The arrow shaft resting in his right hand seems less a weapon than a pen or paintbrush, further abstracting him from his martyrdom and all its gory, human details.
But look again, and you’ll find warmth.
more here.
Enjoying the content on 3QD? Help keep us going by donating now.