Skip to main content

Andrea Mantegna, 'St Sebastian', 1456-9


My eye is firstly drawn to the violence of the scene. Mantegna has juxtaposed Saint Sebastian's blemish-free and perfect, white skin with streaks of blood trickling from his many wounds. This is foregrounded by the arrow running through his face, straight through his third eye. There are so many arrows that they are difficult to follow them through the body, but the one through the head is deliberately clear. The viewer's eye is drawn towards this because of upwards, agonised gaze of Saint Sebastian himself, looking heavenwards to God. Interestingly, the entire painting has a surprising softness, both in brushwork and colour, considering it is such a violent subject matter. It is an image full of beautiful detail and precision rather than emotion and yet it has agony at its very centre.

Saint Sebastian's emotions are clearly depicted on his face, and the brown hair that acts as a kind of second halo to frame his face makes his features stand out even more. The emotions suggest confusion as well as pain. He is clearly very much alive, the whites of his eyes reflecting the white of the composition as a whole, but also referencing pain, and perhaps even fear. Furthermore, the twisted angles of his body and the clear definition of his ribs and diaphragm on his torso, heighten the agony of his wounds, even making the viewer sympathise with his position. His hands seem to be bound uncomfortably behind his back, yet his body is twisted, with his knees knocking together in a tense pose. There is no way for him to try and dull the pain, he must just endure it, exposed literally and metaphorically to this unavoidable consequence. Yet there is elegance to his pose. The contrapposto suggests Mantegna's interest in classical sculpture but there is also a sinuous Gothic feel to the 'S' shaped curve of his body and, like many depictions of Saint Sebastian, there is a sensual quality to his depiction of the nude.

Mantegna has included a huge amount of detail in his fifteenth century painting. Judging by his other works too, he clearly had an interest in architectural detailing, and the inclusion of an elaborate marble column and ruined Roman arch cements this. But there are also sculptural remnants scattered at the saint's feet: perhaps symbolic of the paganism defeated. The use of the tiled floor also shows the artist's skill and Renaissance interest in perspective. The gravel path in the background of the painting creates the sense of recession and furthers the three-dimensional nature of the piece. But you can also see figures on the road, and a peaceful pastoral landscape, ordinary life continuing, apparently oblivious of the saint's martyrdom. The colour of the painting as a whole is mostly white and blue, with occasional gold, such as the Byzantine-style halo above Sebastian's head. It is a serene palette, suggesting the purity of the saint's sacrifice. The sky fills nearly half of the pictorial space and Mantegna has even included a figure in the top left cloud referencing a path to Christian redemption, even in the darkest of times. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Guccio di Mannaia, 'Chalice for Pope Nicholas IV', 13th century

  As the only work remaining of Sienese goldsmith Guccio di Mannaia, the chalice he created for Pope Nicholas IV in the late thirteenth century is an incredibly important work of art. Not only does it highlight the rich, opulent nature of papal commissions, but it proves the talent of Sienese goldsmiths and their resulting influence on painters and sculptors of the period. The chalice is innovative in shape and form, but it is striking first and foremost through the use of gold. It is an object that deserves to be viewed in the flesh, because of its reflective and therefore mimetic potential – like a bronze sculpture it is activated by light and should be experienced in the round as a three-dimensional, highly decorated art object. Its complicated design features an almost architectonic base, star-like as it spills out towards the viewer. The base builds up into the stem of the chalice which is decorated with an array of enamelled plaques featuring saints, prophets, angels and furt...
Post a Comment
Read more

Nicola Pisano, 'Adoration of the Magi', Pisa Baptistery Pulpit Panel

  In this complex, lively, exciting pulpit panel the eye looks up towards the monumentality of the Virgin, who commands this scene. She is massive and powerful, the largest figure with thick swathes of drapery delineating her forcefully protruding knees out into the viewer's space. Seated but still retaining dominance, she defines the classicising style of Nicola Pisano, witnessed throughout the panels of his pulpit in Pisa. Many writers have described the style - Eloise Angiola for instance, refers to the 'sophisticated understanding of classical prototypes to create heroic human forms' in Nicola's pulpit. Certainly in Pisa the prominent debris from the classical past remained visible and Nicola easily had access to various ancient sarcophagi for direct emulation here. The Virgin's features with her serene expression and curled hair beneath the mantle are in fact quite androgenous. She quickly assumes the position of a monumental Roman Emperor or Senator commanding...
Post a Comment
Read more

Marianne von Werekin, 'Sunrise', 1920

  An endless line of men that tug the rope of a small boat soon disappear into murky, burning red waters beyond. Colour is fantastical, mystical and otherworldly, producing an atmosphere far from reality. This is the Symbolist work of Marianne von Werefkin, part of the German Expressionists that worked in Munich from the 1910s. A movement so often dominated by the male names of the time – Kandinsky especially – Werefkin was a vital participant, expanding the range of art produced and displayed, complementing her work with art theory and written sources, as well as creating her own Salon upon her arrival in Munich. It is easy to get lost in biography with a piece such as this. Wasted, human potential seems to be at the heart of this work, signalled by the endless line of men pushing forward towards the edge of the picture plane. There is a sense of struggle and a universality to the suffering through the portrayal of faceless men in similar blue tones. Looking at the date produced o...
Post a Comment
Read more