St. Sebastian (Botticelli)

St. Sebastian

Artist	Sandro Botticelli
Year	1474
Type	Tempera on panel
Dimensions	195 cm × 75 cm (77 in × 30 in)
Location	Staatliche Museen, Berlin

St. Sebastian is a painting by the Italian Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli, executed in 1474 for the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore, Florence. It is housed in the Staatliche Museen of Berlin.

Criticism and influence

Kenneth Clark considered this picture remarkable for its closeness to the spirit of harmonious repose found in classical sculpture:

There are several reasons why for fifty years or more Donatello's David had no successors... Another is the inherent restlessness of the Florentine temperament. Apollo is static. His gestures are dignified and calm. But the Florentines loved movement, the more violent the better. The two great masters of the nude in the late quattrocento, Pollaiuolo and Botticelli, are concerned with embodiments of energy or ecstatic motion, with a wrestling Hercules or a flying angel, and only once, in Botticelli's St. Sebastian, achieve a satisfactory nude in repose.^[1]

Rainer Maria Rilke's poem "Sankt Sebastian" (in Neue Gedichte, 1907) seems to have a close correspondence in description and mood to Botticelli's painting, as Rilke's translator J.B. Leishman and Jane Davidson Reid have observed.^[2]

Notes

↑ Kenneth Clark, The Nude: A study in ideal form, 1956, ch. 2, "Apollo."
↑ Jane Davidson Reid, "Rilke's Sebastian and the Painters," Art Journal 27 (1967), pp. 24-33 + 39.

Botticelli

Works	Madonna and Child with an Angel Madonna and Child with an Angel Madonna della Loggia The Virgin and Child with Two Angels and the Young St. John the Baptist The Annunciation The Virgin and Child, St. John and an Angel Madonna and Child Adoration of the Magi Portrait of a Young Man Madonna in Glory with Seraphim Madonna of the Sea Madonna of the Rosegarden (Madonna del Roseto) Madonna and Child and Two Angels Portrait of Smeralda Brandini Fortitude Madonna and Child with Six Saints (Sant'Ambrogio Altarpiece) Virgin and Child with an Angel The Return of Judith to Bethulia The Discovery of the Murder of Holofernes Adoration of the Magi Portrait of a Young Woman Adoration of the Magi St. Sebastian Portrait of a Man with a Medal of Cosimo the Elder Portrait of Giuliano de' Medici Madonna and Child Catherine of Alexandria Nativity Portrait of Giuliano de' Medici The Birth of Christ Madonna and Child with Eight Angels St. Augustine Madonna of the Magnificat (Madonna del Magnificat) Madonna of the Book (Madonna del Libro) Portrait of a Young Woman Portrait of a Young Woman Annunciation St. Sixtus II Adoration of the Magi Primavera Pallas and the Centaur Venus and Mars Portrait of a Young Man Portrait of a Young Man The Story of Nastagio degli Onesti Venus and the Three Graces Presenting Gifts to a Young Woman A Young Man Being Introduced to the Seven Liberal Arts The Virgin and Child Enthroned (Bardi Altarpiece) The Birth of Venus Annunciation Madonna Adoring the Child with Five Angels Madonna of the Pomegranate (Madonna della Melagrana) The Virgin and Child with Four Angels and Six Saints (Pala di San Barnaba) Vision of St. Augustine Christ in the Sepulchre Salome with the Head of St. John the Baptist Extraction of St. Ignatius' Heart Cestello Annunciation The Virgin Adoring the Child Lamentation over the Dead Christ Portrait of a Man San Marco Altarpiece St. Augustine in His Cell Madonna and Child and the Young St John the Baptist Portrait of Lorenzo di Ser Piero Lorenzi Virgin and Child with the Infant St. John the Baptist Holy Trinity (Pala delle Convertite) The Virgin and Child with Three Angels (Madonna del Padiglione) Calumny of Apelles Lamentation over the Dead Christ with Saints Last Communion of St. Jerome Portrait of Dante The Story of Virginia The Story of Lucretia Crucifixion Christ Crowned with Thorns Transfiguration, St Jerome, St Augustine Judith Leaving the Tent of Holofernes Agony in the Garden The Mystical Nativity Baptism of St. Zenobius and His Appointment as Bishop Three Miracles of St. Zenobius Three Miracles of St. Zenobius Last Miracle and the Death of St. Zenobius

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, March 27, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.