Grove Dictionary of Art on Mantegna's San Sebastian

It was almost certainly Federico I Gonzaga, Ludovico’s successor, who commissioned the St Sebastian (Paris, Louvre). The picture, painted in the early 1480s, was probably intended as an altarpiece for the Sainte-Chapelle at Aigueperse in the Auvergne (where it hung until the French Revolution), where Chiara Gonzaga, Federico’s daughter, went to live after her marriage in 1481. The idealized figure of the saint is set against a temple fragment painted with a masterly sense of the texture of both carved and broken rock. Mantegna juxtaposed the saint’s real foot with a foot fragment of a statue, playing on the paragone theme in a demonstration of the versatility of painting. The landscape background is close to that in the Meeting Scene in the Camera Picta, confirming the works’ chronological proximity. Francesco Gonzaga, Federico’s successor, was also appreciative of Mantegna’s abilities, making him a grant of land in 1492 in recognition of his painted works for the family.

The Grove Dictionary of Art

Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna on Mantegna's San Sebastian

The Roman martyr St. Sebastian almost resembles a stone sculpture here, and we experience first hand the rounded body contours achieved in the distinct moulding of the figure. The background stretches forever behind the figure and is enriched with fragments of ancient architecture. Mantegnas signature on the column of the Triumphal Arch is written in Greek, more evidence of his extensive knowledge of the ancient world.

Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna

Sheryl Parker on San Sebastian's dual symbolism

Saint Sebastian served a great purpose in the sixteenth century for his role as a saint was twofold. Firstly, Sebastian was given the designation as the patron saint of athletes because of his physical endurance and way of spreading the Faith. ... In addition to the title of patron saint of athletes, Sebastian was named the patron saint of those afflicted with plague.

Sheryl Parker: Saint Sebastian: Vision of Health and Love

Hugh Honour and John Fleming on Mantegna's San Sebastian

Vasari was to write that Mantegna "always maintained that the good antique statues were more perfect and beautiful than anything in Nature. He believed that the masters of antiquity had combined in one figure the perfections which are rarely found together in one individual and had thus produced single figures of surpassing beauty." Whether or not Mantegna ever made such an uncompromising statement of faith in idealization, these words are relevant to his St Sebastian. The young saint's body looks as if it had been carved out of some unusually hard and flawless marble. It is placed against a Corinthian column (with a glancing illusion to Vitruvius's equation between architectural and bodily proportions). Yet in this, as in many other fifteenth-century religious pictures, the pagan world is shown symbolically in ruins. Fragments of statues and reliefs lie on the ground, the building (based on the arch of Septimius Severus in Rome) is fissured and broken. The apparent contradiction is, however, essential to the meaning of the painting - Christianity, personified by the saint, prevails over all human ills and disasters. St Sebastian was a patron of the sick and his intercession was evoked especially in times of plague, of which there were outbreaks (probably bubonic) every 15 years or so in Venice throughout the century.

 

Stefano Malatesta on Mantegnas ruinlandskap

I många av Mantegnas verk finns en uppenbar känsla av ruin, förstörelse och av en storhet över vilken dödens mörka vinge svept, med andra ord exakt motsatsen till grundtanken hos renässansens arkitektur som från antiken hämtade impulsen till liv ...

© 2002 Mikael Hörnqvist

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