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According to legend, Saint Sebastian was a Roman commander executed under Emperor Diocletian (284-305). After refusing to renounce his Christian faith, Sebastian’s fellow soldiers were ordered to tie him up, shoot him with arrows, and leave him for dead, but the saint's body was recovered by a woman named Irene who miraculously nursed him back to health. Since he survived an experience that should have been fatal, Sebastian was popular during the Renaissance as a protector against plague. In depicting his body as beautiful and idealized, unblemished by his wounds, the artist is alluding to Sebastian’s effectiveness as a divine protector. Little is known about Antonio Pirri. Originally from Bologna, he is documented just once, in Naples, in 1511. Only three signed paintings by him are known today, and none of them are dated, making his chronology difficult to determine. The Walters painting is close to Pirri's signed painting of "Saints Paul Hermit and Anthony Abbot" (formerly in a private collection in Genoa), which includes a similar fantastical landscape with detailed foliage, craggy cliffs, and a distant view of Rome.

Page data

Page
1
Source index
0
Type
photo
Media ID
36c5057f80d4a87e
Size
unknown

Document data

ID
11977
Core
obj
Type
drawing
DTO data
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    "sourceUrl": "https://purl.thewalters.org/art/37.447",
    "contentType": "drawing",
    "stage": "normalized",
    "title": "Saint Sebastian",
    "description": "According to legend, Saint Sebastian was a Roman commander executed under Emperor Diocletian (284-305). After refusing to renounce his Christian faith, Sebastian’s fellow soldiers were ordered to tie him up, shoot him with arrows, and leave him for dead, but the saint's body was recovered by a woman named Irene who miraculously nursed him back to health. Since he survived an experience that should have been fatal, Sebastian was popular during the Renaissance as a protector against plague. In depicting his body as beautiful and idealized, unblemished by his wounds, the artist is alluding to Sebastian’s effectiveness as a divine protector. Little is known about Antonio Pirri. Originally from Bologna, he is documented just once, in Naples, in 1511. Only three signed paintings by him are known today, and none of them are dated, making his chronology difficult to determine. The Walters painting is close to Pirri's signed painting of \"Saints Paul Hermit and Anthony Abbot\" (formerly in a private collection in Genoa), which includes a similar fantastical landscape with detailed foliage, craggy cliffs, and a distant view of Rome.",
    "provenance": "Don Marcello Massarenti Collection, Rome [date and mode of acquisition unknown] [1881 catalogue: no. 188; 1897 catalogue: no. 161, as Lorenzo Costa the Elder]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1902, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.",
    "date": "1510-1525 (Renaissance)",
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Context sent to Scholar

Document identity
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Document source metadata
{
    "id": "11977",
    "sourceUrl": "https://purl.thewalters.org/art/37.447",
    "contentType": "drawing",
    "stage": "normalized",
    "title": "Saint Sebastian",
    "description": "According to legend, Saint Sebastian was a Roman commander executed under Emperor Diocletian (284-305). After refusing to renounce his Christian faith, Sebastian’s fellow soldiers were ordered to tie him up, shoot him with arrows, and leave him for dead, but the saint's body was recovered by a woman named Irene who miraculously nursed him back to health. Since he survived an experience that should have been fatal, Sebastian was popular during the Renaissance as a protector against plague. In depicting his body as beautiful and idealized, unblemished by his wounds, the artist is alluding to Sebastian’s effectiveness as a divine protector. Little is known about Antonio Pirri. Originally from Bologna, he is documented just once, in Naples, in 1511. Only three signed paintings by him are known today, and none of them are dated, making his chronology difficult to determine. The Walters painting is close to Pirri's signed painting of \"Saints Paul Hermit and Anthony Abbot\" (formerly in a private collection in Genoa), which includes a similar fantastical landscape with detailed foliage, craggy cliffs, and a distant view of Rome.",
    "provenance": "Don Marcello Massarenti Collection, Rome [date and mode of acquisition unknown] [1881 catalogue: no. 188; 1897 catalogue: no. 161, as Lorenzo Costa the Elder]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1902, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.",
    "date": "1510-1525 (Renaissance)",
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Document source extras
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    "creator_ids": [
        "2849"
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    "collection_ids": [
        "REN"
    ],
    "exhibition_ids": [
        "2873"
    ]
}
Page context
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