It is to be noted that this pairing--i.e., St. Sebastian and St. Roch--was particularly popular in the XVI^th and VII^th Centuries and especially to the Italian painters. This is notable as St. Roch was considered a French saint even though he performed his miracles in Italy and is said to be interred there. After 1700, as noted above, the representation of the patron-pair was seen less and less. By the end of the XVIII^th Century St. Roch all but disappears; not so with St. Sebastian!

St. Sebastian as a Secondary Figure

Even though paintings which feature St. Sebastian as the sole or central figure are obvious and tend to stand out, there are hundreds of other paintings from the XV^th through the XVIII^th Centuries in which the martyr-saint is a secondary, or attending figure. Five have been considered above. In some instances St. Sebastian is standing behind other saints and only a part of his form is visible. In many cases, however, the martyr-saint is prominently displayed in the foreground, usually in the lower left or lower right of the composition--e.g., the compositions of Antonio Rimpata, Girolamo di Romano, Rosso Fiorentino, Giovanni Antonio Licinio and Bonifacio di Pitati, noted above, among many.

The inclusion of St. Sebastian in numerous compositions where the subject is not centered upon the martyr-saint only adds to his popularity. Association with other saints or holy figures irrevocably adds to the already brilliant aura of St. Sebastian.

Aesthetic Distance⁸ and St. Sebastian

Paintings have been considered as windows through which the viewer observes the reality of whatever is painted. The often elaborate frame of a painting acts as the window frame. In many paintings, the format of the composition is such that the subject often appears to be some distance from the viewer or the plane of the painting--i.e., the picture plane. This would suggest that the viewer is removed from the primary action and is a mere observer. As the primary subject fills more and more of the picture plane, the viewer is forced closer and closer to the primary subject and implied action. At some point the fact of being an observer is psychologically shifted to being a participant by dint of close proximity.⁹ Certainly, the St. Sebastian of Cosimo Tura (c. 1470) (See: Figure 8), or Sandro Botticelli's St. Sebastian (1474) (See: Figure 9), where the figure of the martyr-saint fills nearly all of the picture plane forces the viewer to the close proximity of St. Sebastian. In Hendrich Terbrugghen's Irene Succoring St. Sebastian (1625) (See: Figure 74), we, the viewer, are no longer casual observers, but are thrust into the adjacent space of the primary subject increasing the impact of the work's content. The destruction of aesthetic distance is further eroded when there is eye contact between the primary subject or one of the primary subjects and the viewer. For example: we observe in Bernardino Luini's of the Madonna and Child Flanked by St. Sebastian and St. Roch (c. 1520) (See: Figure 210) that St. Sebastian is gazing at his fellow saint. However, St. Roch is looking directly at us, the viewer(s) as he pulls up his garment, exposing his left thigh and pointing at the lesion. The Madonna looks towards us, but does not appear to be making the direct eye contact that we see in St. Roch. It is also of interest to note that in most of the paintings depicting St. Sebastian, he is not making eye contact with the viewer. A notable exception is seen in the painting of Giovanni Buonconsiglio of St. Sebastian Flanked by St. Lawrence and St. Roch (1500) (See: Figure 32). Here, the Saints Lawrence and Roch are making direct eye contact with the viewer. St. Sebastian also appears to be looking at, or at least towards the viewer, but his gaze seems a bit out of focus. Who has not viewed a painting where the subject(s) look directly at the viewer and as we move the eyes seem to follow.