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Saint Sebastian Tended by Irene
Artist	Hendrick ter Brugghen
Year	1625
Type	Oil on canvas
Dimensions	149 cm × 119.4 cm (49 in × 16 in)
Location	Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin
Website	[oberlin.edu]

Saint Sebastian Tended by Irene is an oil-on-canvas painting by Hendrick Ter Brugghen dated to 1625. Currently housed in the Oberlin, Ohio's Allen Memorial Art Museum, the piece depicts the Roman Catholic biblical scene of Saint Sebastian being saved by Irene of Rome and her maid following his attempted murder. An exemplary piece of the growing Baroque period in the Netherlands, the painting employs dramatic uses of light and skillful chiaroscuro to depict its biblical subject, evidence of influence from Caravaggio and Brugghen's fellow Caravaggisti.

Provenance

The piece is recorded to appear in a private collection to a Pieter Eris in Amsterdam during the 1660’s. Its exact provenance remains speculation, perhaps intended for a charitable institution where the sick were cared for, such as those with the plague which became prevalent in the Netherlands around the 1600s. Others supposed it was intended for a “hidden church” or private churches, attributing its appearance in later private collections to the piece being purchased by patrons. It has also been thought that the painting was commissioned by a militia company though this has been dismissed. It seems most likely to be intended for a private institution due to its Roman Catholic messages opposing Brugghen’s own Protestant fate. The painting eventually found its way to a Frederick Mont, from whom the painting was purchased by Oberlin in 1953. The piece has been exhibited in the Washington, D.C.’s National Gallery of Art, Utrecht’s Centraal Museum and New York’s The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Subject

This painting depicts Saint Sebastian, slumped in pain as he is tended to by Saint Irene and her maid. Diocletian, in the midst of persecuting Christians, has Saint Sebastian shot by archers as punishment for his treason. Looking for his body to bury, Irene found Saint Sebastian tied to a tree and miraculously alive, afterwards nursing him back to health. The biblical tale of Saint Sebastian is not an exceptional subject to art and was often depicted in previous eras; known for his powers of healing the sick during his life, he is often seen as the patron Saint of suffering. However, at the time of the 1600’s, a change in the narrative style of Saint Sebastian’s story occurs in portraiture. Rather than painting the scene of Sebastian being pelted with arrows, in the midst of his attempted murder, Brugghen chooses to show the moments afterwards where Irene and her maid come to Sebastian's aid. Some attribute this narrative shift to the emergence of the plague within Utrecht in the 1600's: several artists desiring a subject saved from agony, turn to painting the rescue of the Catholicism's personification of suffering. Further evidence can be seen in Brugghen’s choice of depicting Sebastian in a sickly green pallor, his limp body lying in suffering and resembling much of the diseased or dead one would encounter in Utrecht at the time.

Formal Elements

Composition

A diagonal line spans the length of the canvas from the top left corner to the bottom right. It stretches down Saint Sebastian’s tense arm, across his body and down to his feet, an arrow protruding from the center of his chest continuing the form. Sebastian’s lifeless right hand in the air forms a triangular shape at one end of the line with the hands of Irene’s maid, at balance with Sebastian’s feet and left hand that touches the ground in the opposite corner. At the apex is Irene and Sebastian’s faces in the foreground, turned away from each other, highlighting their symbolic relationship and the juxtaposition of their positions as the painting's prime focus. Irene’s upturned face toward the source of light, graced with a gentle smile, furnishes her with a sense of hope and rescue. It stands in contrast to Sebastian’s head, stricken with anguish as his expression is cast in shadow. The heads of the figures create a “pyramidal form”, echoing the arrangement of trios prominent in the piece.

Iconography

Irene’s curved form faces away from the lone tree in the background, distantly resembling a crucifixion, counterbalancing Sebastian’s arching back and posterior. The opposition of these figures is also highlighted by an arrow that protrudes from his leg. Sebastian rests upon the most vivid object in the piece is a bright red fabric adorned in gold, often used symbolically by Caravaggisti like Brugghen to symbolize the Blood of Christ and martyrdom. The tree in the background contrasts the thick tree of the group, its slender and seemingly flimsy form highlighting the tragic ambiance. The consistent use of groups of three, whether it be the three heads in a formation, the trio of the maid’s hands and Sebastian’s hand, the leaves of the distant forlorn tree in the background or simply the subject of three biblical figures is symbolic of the Holy Trinity.
Brugghen subtlety imbues the association of the figures in this piece through both disparity and similarity of their hands. Sebastian’s left hand, free of bondage, lies limp and obscured from view, symbolic of his unattainable relief from pain and lack of freedom. Irene’s left hand rests on his chest, above his heart and provides support in a benevolent embrace, forming their relationship in the composition as one who tends to the other in suffering. The triangular form in the top left corner represents the connection between the maid and Sebastian; as Stechow describes it, “…the lifeless flesh of Sebastian’s right hand yields to the pressure of the rope while the left hand of Irene’s servant reacts to the same pressure with lively resilience.” Pulling on the tight ropes on Sebastian’s wrist is the servant’s right hand, attempting alleviate the bind. She touches forefinger and thumb together, the same gesture Irene uses with the same hand to tug an arrow from Sebastian’s lower torso. Together, these two women parallel each other in hand gesture and action, both ousting a source of Sebastian's pain.

Interpretation

Had this painting been truly intended for an institution dedicated to healing the sick and afflicted with plague or hidden church, it is interesting to see how Brugghen constructs this composition for its audience. Dramatic lighting cast from the upper left corner of the painting and subtle use of iconography such as the tree in the background, symbolic of a crucifixion, delicately suggests the presence of God, perhaps observing the rescue from above. Further stylistic choices made by Brugghen, such as the juxtaposition of his Irene’s maid’s hands and Sebastian’s or the pallor of Sebastian’s skin compared to that of lively tones of the maid introduces themes of hope, strength and endurance in the face of despair,as well as alleviation to the afflicted weather in the form of recovery or entrance into heaven. Combining these themes in such a way that it is exhibited in Brugghen’s Saint Sebastian Tended by Saint Irene subtlety demonstrates clear consideration for its original intended destination: the plague afflicted, facing their impending mortality. Victims seeking relief and comfort would look upon Brugghen's painting, finding likeness in Sebastian's sickly pallor as he is alleviated from affliction and perhaps encounter respite or be invoked to religious worship.

Comparisons

Crucifixion with the Virgin and St John by Hendrick Ter Brugghen. Oil on canvas. 1625. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.

Saint Sebastian Tended by Saint Irene and her Maid by Dirck van Baburen. Oil on canvas. 1615. Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid.

Painted the same year, Brugghen’s Crucifixion with the Virgin and St. John is accepted to be very similar in stylistic features and perhaps intended for the same destination as Saint Sebastian Tended by Irene. The archaic style of the Christ on the crucifix recalls old Netherland styles but remains in contrast to the more contemporary Mary and John, creating a piece where “Brugghen rejects the ahistorical for the meta-historical.” A stronger connection is also made between the two paintings based on the similarities between the Crucifixion’s Saint John and Sebastian in Saint Sebastian, believed to be the same model.
Dirck van Baburen, another Utrecht Caravaggisti who once shared a studio with Brugghen, painted his own rendition of Saint Irene tending to the shot Sebastian a decade earlier. The two paintings share a striking similarity of Sebastian slumping down to the right corner of the canvas, mouth agape as his face is downcast while being held right above the breast. Most likely, this painting had the most influence on Brugghen envisioning the biblical scene.

See Also

• Dutch art
• Roman Catholic Art
• Religious art
• Utrecht Caravaggism
• Dutch Golden Age painting

References

Notes

Bibliography

• Brugghen, Hendrick ter. The Crucifixion with the Virgin and St. John. 1625. Oil on Canvas. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
• Brugghen, Hendrick ter. Saint Sebastian Tended by Saint Irene. 1625. Oil on Canvas. Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin.
• M. E. Wieseman, “Dutch and Flemish Art,” Allen Memorial Art Museum: Oberlin College, accessed March 20, 2015, http://www.oberlin.edu/amam/TerBrugghen.htm.
• Seaman, Natasha. The Religious Paintings of Hendrick ter Brugghen: Reinventing Christian Painting after the Reformation in Utrecht. Farnham: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2012.
• Slatkes, Leonard J. and Wayne Franits. The Paintings of Hendrick Ter Brugghen: Catalogue Raisonne. Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2007.
• Stechow, Wolfgang. “Terbrugghen's 'Saint Sebastian'.” The Burlington Magazine 96, no. 612 (March 1954): 70-74.
• Virch, Claus. “The Crucifixion by Hendrick Terbrugghen.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 16, no. 8 (April 1958): 217-226.