Saint Sebastian by El Greco, 1610-1614. Recorded on November 20, 2024
According to ancient traditions collected by Jacobus de Voragine, Saint Sebastian was a third-century Roman soldier who served in the Praetorian Guard, one of the most prestigious units of the imperial army, when the emperor Diocletian was actively persecuting Christians. Sebastian’s beliefs urged him to encourage others to die rather than renounce their faith, and that was what he did. Because of how he was tortured (bound naked to a tree and shot with arrows), depictions of Sebastian afforded artists the opportunity to experiment with the aesthetic possibilities of the male nude as a subject. Rather than imitating nature, El Greco reworks it to produce an intellectual, self-consciously artificial version of it; his purpose is to create a scene that belongs in the world of the artist’s imagination and he is not primarily concerned with replicating viewers’ everyday experience of seeing.
American Friends helps share the Prado’s collection with a weekly session in English on the museum’s social media.
We are a 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization of the United States dedicated to supporting the Museo del Prado and promoting visibility of its art collection.
All of our projects are made possible thanks to contributor support. Join and help us do more.
https://www.afpradomuseum.org