Preface

Several years ago I watched a televised special on one of the learning channels that dealt with St. Sebastian. A particular focus of the documentary dealt with Guido Reni. Now, I must admit Reni had never placed high on my list of favored artists. But, as the narrative unfolded my interest was piqued, particularly regarding the three, nearly identical versions of the standing figure with hands tied above the head--i.e., Capitonino, Genoa and Cheltenham--and the five, virtually identical renditions with hands behind the back--i.e., Louvre, Dulwich, Auckland, Prado and Ponce.

Just out of curiosity, I began to locate and identify the numerous two-dimensional images on the Internet. Within a few weeks I had amassed nearly one-thousand-five-hundred examples. I was mildly amazed. The two-dimensional images of Saint Sebastian were only exceeded by those of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary!

Why was this martyr-saint so popular? So, I began to make a visual analysis of the collected works as well as the socio-cultural milieu within which they were produced. The following is a brief result of my delving.

The examples found in this study were gleaned from the Internet. There are two Internet sites which were invaluable in the preparation of this study. In both cases there is a vast amount of information and examples in each. They are: The Iconography of Saint Sebastian found at http://bode.diee.unica.it/%7Egiua/SEBASTIAN/#Painting; and the second is the Iconografia di San Sebastiano nell’arte figurativa italiana found at http://www.sansebastiano.com/copertina.htm. In addition a Google search for St. Sebastian images indicates "4,770,000 results," many of which were duplicates. In addition many "Blogger" sites were blocked due to their erotic content and when opened provided numerous examples not displayed in the Google images.