How or why was St. Sebastian, the patron of pestilence, etc., adopted as the patron of the gay world? Is it because the martyr-saint is frequently shown semi nude? Apollo, Heracles, David, Adam, and numerous others are shown nude, but, for some reason they do not qualify as patron of the gay world. Is it because of the sadomasochistic implications of his initial martyrdom--i.e., being shot with arrows? St. Lawrence, St. Peter of Verona, St Hippolitus, St Edmund were all martyr-saints who suffered painful deaths with apparent equanimity, but they do not qualify. Is it because of the youthful age that the martyr-saint is often portrayed? Again, the young David is portrayed as a nude adolescent ephebe by Andrea del Verrocchio, and, still this does not qualify him!

It appears that the association of St. Sebastian and the gay world coalesced and became verbalized particularly in the mid to late XIX^th century England. Writers began to highlight, to interpret or to reinterpret paintings of the XV^th-XVII^th Centuries of the martyr-saint in light of their homosexual appeal which the English defined as "Uranian love"--e.g., Charles Dickens, A. W. C. Lindsay, Walter H. Pater, Oscar Wilde, and Frederick W. Rolfe. Two Italian artists seemed to catalyze the writings of these men--i.e., Antonello da Messina's St. Sebastian (c. 1477) (See: Figure 132) and the St. Sebastians of Guido Reni (1615 & 1617) (See: Figure 19). The sweet, passive youth, standing hip-shot and scantily clad of Antonello, set the standard. This interpretation was buttressed by the soft, doe-eyed, effete, languidly posed young men of Guido Reni. The apparent insouciance of Antonello da Messina's youth coupled by the implied spiritual passion of Reni's luxurious young men, caused many to connect these and other representations of this martyr-saint to homoerotic content, simply by dint of subject and the manner in which they were portrayed. Reni appeared positively enamored with the subject and image producing numerous images with variations--e.g., Auckland (c. 1625), Bologna (1639-1640) Capitolina (c. 1620), Christie (c. 1620), Dulwich (b. 1620), Genova (1615-1616), Louvre (b. 1620), and Prado (b. 1620). But, it was the Capitolina version of c. 1620 that fired the imagination of all those who saw it. The Capitolina (c. 1620) image is virtually identical to the Genova (1615-1616) except the former exhibits three arrows and the latter only two. In the Capitolina image the hands are tied above the martyr-saint's head as if in a balletic position, face registering no pain but a kind of disembodied curiosity as he gazes upward, soulfully, rouged cheeks, mouth slightly parted and full lips with a youthful, adolescent body. He appears utterly passive, submissive, accepting the invasion of his body by those foreign objects--the arrows. The parallels are obvious--i.e., an arrow has long been seen as a phallic object--and they caught the imagination and stoked the fires of latent and not so latent passion of many of those who viewed it--the unresistant vessel submitting to the dominant object or force.

Some see the ballooning literary attention in England as a reaction to the repressive, homosexual laws which were being enforced somewhat arbitrarily at the time. During the reign of Henry VIII^th the law which established "buggery as a felony" was promulgated. However, it is generally concluded that the initial reason for this law was not essentially anti-homosexual, although the ultimate enforcement was, but an easy primary step in establishing the supremacy of the secular court over the ecclesiastical courts. Following this, the English "buggery" law was adopted by the American Colonies in 1624. Then, in 1634 England imposed the buggery-as-a-felony law upon Ireland where it was also punishable by death with some active exercise of the law. Although there were moral/ethical reasons for this imposition, it was seen to be more politically based than moral/ethical. The application of the "buggery as a felony" law was applied in England to Captain Robert James in 1772 and he was condemned to death for sodomy.¹⁰ His sentence was commuted by the king and a protracted debate followed. During the XIX^th Century, there was no repeal or revision of the original law of 1533, but there appeared to be a lessening of its application during the first half of the century. Finally in 1885 the infamous "Labouchere Amendment" ¹¹ was adopted which reemphasized earlier penalties and also included all forms of homosexual contacts between men, particularly. This state of affairs in England may have been the catalyst and/or the agar out of which the literary assault grew.