Saint Sebastian Tended by Saint Irene

Saint Sebastian was an early Christian saint and martyr who served in the army of the Roman emperor Diocletian. At a time when Christians were widely persecuted, Saint Sebastian secretly practiced Christianity and used his high ranking position to help imprisoned believers. In art, the portrayal of his botched execution is extremely popular and debates surrounding his death have emerged due to varying visual and hagiographic accounts. The nature of renaissance and baroque visual storytelling traditions compelled painters to strictly emphasise on dramatic painful scenes leading to the production of climactic images which exhibited such events. The scene that is historically recognised as Saint Sebastian's first martyrdom coming from the 5th century text, "Passio Sancti Sebastiani" is "The Bed of Arrows" which depicts him tied to a tree, appearing like a pin-cushion from being riddled with arrows. Many, naturally assume this being the manner in which Saint Sebastian died, however the archers merely assumed his death and left him behind. In all Christian hagiographical accounts, the legend does not end here, it is followed by the scene wherein Saint Irene of Rome, a pious devote widow whose husband had also been martyred, arrives at the site of the execution and retrieves his body for a proper burial, only to find that he has miraculously survived. Subsequently, she brings him back to her home, carefully extracts the arrows and tends to his wounds by applying ointments. The tale reaches its true end, when Sebastian once fully healed by Irene, refuses to flee Rome and instead stands on a public staircase attempting to intercept emperor Diocletian, vehemently denouncing him for his cruelty towards the followers of Christ. The shocked emperor orders his troops to take Sebastian to the Roman hippodrome, where he suffered his second martyrdom and was successfully beaten to death by clubs. The painting above, illustrates the scene of Saint Irene tending to Saint Sebastian's wounds. Painted in the late baroque phase by the Spanish painter Vicente Lopez, it exhibits the typical formal language of the era combined with the emerging neoclassical aesthetics that focus on an idealised form. Conceived very early in his artistic career, the artwork is particularly valuable for understanding the development of Vicente Lopez before he became one of the dominant portraitists of Spain.