St Sebastian
File Type:
JPEG imageItem Type:
ImageDate:
1983Citation:
William L. Pressly, 'James Barry: Artist as Hero', London: The Tate Gallery, 1983, p 65, no 14Download Item:
Publisher:
The Tate GalleryDescription:
'The Emperor Diocletian ordered St Sebastian, a commander of a company of the Praetorian Guard, to be bound and shot to death with arrows when he refused to renounce his faith in Christ. Abandoned for dead, the saint survived this first attempted execution, only to be clubbed to death when he again defiantly appeared before the emperor. Because there are no arrows in Barry's drawing, the subject has sometimes been identified as Prometheus, but the drawing's relationship to the print of St Sebastian leaves no doubt as to its subject matter. Barry emphasises the private anguish of the saint's ordeal. Alone in a remote wood, the melancholy victim endures with heroic restraint. Barry signed the recto at the lower right. The lines on the more schematically rendered verso, which may have come later, are extended in such bold strokes that portions have stained through to the other side. In a disembodied sketch at the lower right of the verso, he also tried an alternative position for St Sebastian's head, a solution that he ultimately rejected.' (Pressly, 65)Role:
artistCulture:
IrishDimensions/Extent:
27 cm x 17.6 cmWork:
drawingRole:
artistPublisher:
The Tate GalleryType of material:
ImageAvailability:
Full text availablePeriod:
18th centuryMetadata
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