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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Thank you, George. Unfortunately, this image only shows the top of the altarpiece. One can only see the very top of the bottom right scene which depicts a plague-ravaged city with a miraculous appearance of St Sebastian. Cheers, Jim On 23/04/2012 9:26 AM, George FERZOCO wrote: > medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and > culture Thank you, Jim! > > Here's an image of that altarpiece: > > http://museo.operaduomo.fi.it/imgs/galleria/92.jpg > > And to follow up a query I sent to the list a few weeks ago, I was > intrigued by what I see at the 2:26 mark of this video of the abbey at > Farfa: > > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dtPCBr8d_8 > > Best wishes, George > > -- > George FERZOCO > [log in to unmask] > > > On 23 Apr 2012, at 14:53, Dr Jim Bugslag wrote: > >> The surviving St Sebastian altarpiece from the 1370s from Florence by >> Giovanni del Biondo makes the connection with the plague >> indisputable. The bishop of Florence had sought in Rome a relic of >> St Sebastian in the wake of the Black Death. The altarpiece was made >> in relation to that relic, and the triptych shows a large central >> image of St Sebastian tied to a post and being shot at with arrows - >> a typical image of St Sebastian, except that here he has so many >> arrows sticking out of him that he looks rather like a hedgehog. The >> wings depict narrative scenes related to St Sebastian's relics, >> including one of him coming to the aid of plague victims. >> Cheers, >> Jim >> >> On 22/04/2012 8:21 PM, Paul Chandler wrote: > >>> St Sebastian was considered a protector from bubonic plague, and was >>> included as such in some versions of the Fourteen Holy Helpers. The >>> /Legenda aurea/ recounts a story (with roots in Paul the Deacon in >>> the 8th century) which associates Sebastian with stopping a plague >>> inflicted by stabs from a bad angel carrying a spear, so the >>> connection between Sebastian's arrow wounds and plague buboes is >>> perhaps circuitous but not based merely on appearance. Some have >>> thought it even contains a reminiscence of Apollo. >>> >>> There's a very interesting article on Sebastian and plague (I could >>> access it just now via Google Books) by Sheila Barker, "The Making >>> of a Plague Saint: Saint Sebastian's Imagery and Cult before the >>> Counter-Reformation" in F. Mormando et al. (eds), /Piety and >>> Plague:From Byzantium to the Baroque/ (2007). Barker has an >>> alternative explanation to arrows for the link between the saint and >>> plague, and also complexifies the usual interpretation of the >>> depiction of Sebastian as handsome and near-naked. (she's not >>> automatically Freudian). It's worth reading. -- Paul >>> >>> >>> On 22 April 2012 22:43, Henk 't Jong <[log in to unmask] >>> <mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote: >>> >>> The arrow wounds of St Sebastian were thought to look like >>> pestis buboes? Come on! As if medieval people did not know the >>> difference. IMO it’s more likely that pictures of the martyrdom >>> of the Saint were viewed more because here was a chance to see a >>> naked man. ;-) Were the books with these well thumbed Sebastian >>> pages from nunneries or the private breviaries of devout women? >>> It is not made clear in the article. >>> >>> Henk >>> >>> >>> *Van:*medieval-religion - Scholarly discussions of medieval >>> religious culture [mailto:[log in to unmask] >>> <mailto:[log in to unmask]>] *Namens *George FERZOCO >>> *Verzonden:* zondag 22 april 2012 13:50 >>> *Aan:* [log in to unmask] >>> <mailto:[log in to unmask]> >>> *Onderwerp:* Re: [M-R] Medieval people fell asleep reading their >>> prayer books... >>> >>> >>> This is fascinating, Paul; thanks for sharing this with us on >>> the list. >>> >>> >>> George >>> >>> -- >>> >>> George FERZOCO >>> >>> [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> On 22 Apr 2012, at 05:33, Paul Chandler wrote: >>> >>> >>> >>> ... so says this BBC News story, reporting research by Dr >>> Kathryn Rudy measuring dirt accumulated on manuscript pages: >>> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-17797190 >>> >>> -- >>> Paul Chandler, O.Carm. >>> Holy Spirit Seminary | PO Box 18 (487 Earnshaw Road) | Banyo >>> Qld 4014 | Australia >>> office: (07) 3246 9888 | home: (07) 3246 9894 >>> [log in to unmask] >>> <mailto:[log in to unmask]> >>> > ********************************************************************** > To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME > to: [log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]> To send a > message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] > <mailto:[log in to unmask]> To leave the list, send the > message: leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] > <mailto:[log in to unmask]> In order to report problems or to > contact the list's owners, write to: > [log in to unmask] > <mailto:[log in to unmask]> For further > information, visit our web site: > http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html