The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian

CultureGerman

Dateca. 1500

MediumBoxwood

DimensionsOverall: 13 1/2 × 3 × 4 inches (34.29 × 7.62 × 10.16 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number77-5

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

European Art

Terms

DescriptionLight golden brown, highly polished wood, carved in one from a single piece of wood. The third and fourth fingers of the left hand have been replaced, and the arrows are missing. Mounted on a sculptured black marble base. The carving of the tightly curled hair and the zigzag Gothic style of the drapery reflect late Medieval traditions which remained popular in northern regions of Italy and in the south of Germany, well into the 16th century. The delicacy of the carving and the fine finish are flavored with a naivete which could indicate a provincial origin.Exhibition History

Exhibition History

[None.]

Gallery Label

Saint Sebastian was an officer of the Roman army who secretly converted to Christianity. When this was discovered, he was stripped of his armor and shot with arrows. The angularity of the figure is typical of the late Gothic in northern Europe and contrasts with the more fluid elegance of the Saint Sebastian in Wtewael's painting (shown nearby) executed about a century later in the Mannerist style. Boxwood, in which this statuette is carved, was a fairly hard wood, and so was popular with sculptors who wished, as in this case, to achieve crisp detail on a small scale.

Provenance

With Philip B. Mayer, London;

Purchased at his posthumous sale, European Works of Art…The Property of the late P. B. Mayer, Esq., Sotheby’s, London, November 25, 1963, lot 70, as Flemish, by Jacques Seligmann and Co., New York, stock no. 8747, 1963-February 1967 [1];

Purchased from Jacques Seligmann and Co. by Paul Magriel (1906-1990), New York, February 1967 [2];

With Michael Hall Fine Arts, New York, by November 19, 1976-February 4, 1977 [3];

Purchased from Michael Hall Fine Arts by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1977.

NOTES:

[1] Archives of American Art, Washington, D.C., Jacques Seligmann and Co. records, Series 2.1: Collectors, Box 194, folder 19: Magriel, Paul 1963-1967.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Michael Hall Fine Arts lent this sculpture to the Collector's Market held at the Nelson-Atkins's Sales and Rental Gallery, November 19-December 26, 1976. Nelson-Atkins Archives, RG43/02, Friends of Art-Sales and Rental Gallery Records, box 13, folder 27.

Published References

[None.]

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