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The Florentine painter Perugino made drawings to record figural types and poses that could be repeated throughout his finished paintings. He used the elegant, graceful figure seen here, with its soft athletic body and upwardly turned gaze, in at least two paintings of the 3rd-century martyr Saint Sebastian (the related paintings are now in the collection of the Galleria degli Uffizi, and the Louvre). Sebastian was shot with arrows after being exposed as a Christian convert; he was particularly revered during the Renaissance as a protector against illness such as the plague. Portrayal of the saint required Perugino to express his knowledge of human anatomy, while evoking the gentle s-curve associated with classical sculpture. Drawn with metalpoint, a typical drawing medium in the 1400s, the reinforced lines along the contour of the figure indicate that it was probably used by the artist or by one of his many studio assistants to transfer the design to another sheet.

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1
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0
Type
photo
Media ID
bbdfefc1af02d53f
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unknown

Document data

ID
135407
Core
obj
Type
drawing
DTO data
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    "id": "135407",
    "contentType": "drawing",
    "title": "Saint Sebastian",
    "description": "The Florentine painter Perugino made drawings to record figural types and poses that could be repeated throughout his finished paintings. He used the elegant, graceful figure seen here, with its soft athletic body and upwardly turned gaze, in at least two paintings of the 3rd-century martyr Saint Sebastian (the related paintings are now in the collection of the Galleria degli Uffizi, and the Louvre). Sebastian was shot with arrows after being exposed as a Christian convert; he was particularly revered during the Renaissance as a protector against illness such as the plague. Portrayal of the saint required Perugino to express his knowledge of human anatomy, while evoking the gentle s-curve associated with classical sculpture. Drawn with metalpoint, a typical drawing medium in the 1400s, the reinforced lines along the contour of the figure indicate that it was probably used by the artist or by one of his many studio assistants to transfer the design to another sheet.",
    "date": "c. 1493",
    "citation": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1958.411",
    "rights": "CC0",
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    "language": "en",
    "wikidata": [
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    "largeImageUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1958.411/1958.411_web.jpg",
    "imageCount": 1,
    "source": "import",
    "dimensionsRaw": "Sheet: 25.6 x 14.6 cm (10 1/16 x 5 3/4 in.)",
    "cul": [
        "Italy, 15th century"
    ],
    "accession": "1958.411"
}

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Document identity
{
    "localId": "135407",
    "label": "Saint Sebastian",
    "core": "obj",
    "dtoType": "drawing"
}
Document source metadata
{
    "id": "135407",
    "contentType": "drawing",
    "title": "Saint Sebastian",
    "description": "The Florentine painter Perugino made drawings to record figural types and poses that could be repeated throughout his finished paintings. He used the elegant, graceful figure seen here, with its soft athletic body and upwardly turned gaze, in at least two paintings of the 3rd-century martyr Saint Sebastian (the related paintings are now in the collection of the Galleria degli Uffizi, and the Louvre). Sebastian was shot with arrows after being exposed as a Christian convert; he was particularly revered during the Renaissance as a protector against illness such as the plague. Portrayal of the saint required Perugino to express his knowledge of human anatomy, while evoking the gentle s-curve associated with classical sculpture. Drawn with metalpoint, a typical drawing medium in the 1400s, the reinforced lines along the contour of the figure indicate that it was probably used by the artist or by one of his many studio assistants to transfer the design to another sheet.",
    "date": "c. 1493",
    "citation": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1958.411",
    "rights": "CC0",
    "rightsUri": "CC0",
    "language": "en",
    "wikidata": [
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        8212
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    ],
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    "thumbnailUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1958.411/1958.411_web.jpg",
    "largeImageUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1958.411/1958.411_web.jpg",
    "imageCount": 1,
    "source": "import",
    "dimensionsRaw": "Sheet: 25.6 x 14.6 cm (10 1/16 x 5 3/4 in.)",
    "cul": [
        "Italy, 15th century"
    ],
    "accession": "1958.411"
}
Document source extras
{
    "tec": "metalpoint",
    "tombstone": "Saint Sebastian, c. 1493. Perugino (Italian, c. 1450/55–1523). Metalpoint; sheet: 25.6 x 14.6 cm (10 1/16 x 5 3/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Dudley P. Allen Fund, 1958.411",
    "supportMaterials": [
        {
            "description": "laid paper prepared with gray ground, lined with beige(1) laid paper (with additional residual layers partially removed)"
        }
    ],
    "collection": "DR - Italian",
    "didYouKnow": "The elegant pose of Saint Sebastian here was used by the artist in at least two finished paintings of the saint.",
    "citations": [
        {
            "citation": "Marle, Raimond van, and Charlotte van Marle. <em>The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting.</em> The Hague: M. Nijhoff, 1923.",
            "page_number": "vol 14, pp. 396, 538"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Lee, Sherman E. \"Year in Review.\" <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em> 46, no. 10 (1959): 210-31.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned: pp. 231-32; Reproduced: p. 232",
            "url": "http://www.jstor.org/stable/25142366."
        },
        {
            "citation": "\"Accessions of American and Canadian Museums, July-September, 1959,\" Art Quarterly XXII, no. 4 (Winter, 1959): pp. 385-394.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned: p. 296"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Moskowitz, Ira, and Victoria Thorson. <em>Great Drawings of All Time. </em>New York: Shorewood Publishers, 1962.",
            "page_number": "vol 1, no. 241"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Richards, Louise S. \"Three Early Italian Drawings.\" <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em> 49, no. 7 (1962): 167-74.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 170-72",
            "url": "http://www.jstor.org/stable/25151904."
        },
        {
            "citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art, “Two Italian Drawings,” August 20, 1962, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.",
            "url": "https://archive.org/details/cmapr0993"
        },
        {
            "citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.",
            "page_number": "Reproduced: p. 83",
            "url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1966/page/n107"
        },
        {
            "citation": "<em>Selected Works: Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland:</em> Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: no. 123"
        },
        {
            "citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.",
            "page_number": "Reproduced: p. 83",
            "url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n107"
        },
        {
            "citation": "<em>L'opera Completa Del Perugino; Presentazione Di Carlo Castellaneta; Apparati Critici E Filologici Di Ettore Camesasca.</em> Milan: Rizzoli, 1969.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 124"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Aymar, Brandt. <em>The Young Male Figure: In Paintings, Sculptures, and Drawings, from Ancient Egypt to the Present.</em> New York: Crown Publishers, 1970.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 56"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Pillsbury, Edmund P. <em>Florence and the Arts; Five Centuries of Patronage.</em> 1971.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: no. 53"
        },
        {
            "citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.",
            "page_number": "Reproduced: p. 95",
            "url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n115"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Johnson, Mark M. <em>Idea to Image: Preparatory Studies from the Renaissance to Impressionism.</em> Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1980.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 33-35, fig. 28"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Scarpellini, Pietro. <em>Perugino</em>. Milano: Electa, 1984.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 87"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Dunbar, Burton L., and Edward J. Olszewski. <em>Drawings in Midwestern Collections: A Corpus. Vol 1. The Early Works.</em> Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1996.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: no. 17, pp. 84-90"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Becherer, Joseph Antenucci, and Katherine R. Smith Abbott. <em>Pietro Perugino: Master of the Italian Renaissance. </em>New York: Rizzoli International, 1997.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: no. 4, pp. 149-151, pp. 240-43"
        },
        {
            "citation": "DeGrazia, Diane and Carter E. Foster. <em>Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art.</em> Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in association with Rizzoli International Publications, New York, 2000.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned: cat. no. 3, pp. 24-25, p. 283; Reproduced: p. 25"
        }
    ],
    "url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1958.411",
    "creditline": "Dudley P. Allen Fund",
    "updatedAt": "2026-06-05 11:14:54.368000",
    "imageUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1958.411/1958.411_print.jpg",
    "sourceId": 135407,
    "dept": "Drawings",
    "coll": "DR - Italian",
    "med": "metalpoint",
    "creatorTags": [
        "male"
    ],
    "thumbnail_url": null,
    "image_url": null
}
Page context
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