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:
[log in to unmask]" type="cite">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]> 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]] Namens George FERZOCO
Verzonden: zondag 22 april 2012 13:50
Aan: [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.
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]
