The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 23, 2024

Portrait of a Youth as Saint Sebastian

Portrait of a Youth as Saint Sebastian

late 1480s
(Italian, 1460-1524)
Italy, 15th century
oil on wood, transferred to pressed wood
Framed: 47.5 x 41 x 4 cm (18 11/16 x 16 1/8 x 1 9/16 in.); Unframed: 30.5 x 24 cm (12 x 9 7/16 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 1986.9
Location: 118 Italian Renaissance

Description

Sebastian, a bodyguard for the Roman emperor Diocletian, was shot with arrows and was eventually drowned for his commitment to Christianity. While the arrow alludes to Saint Sebastian, the young man’s clothing dates to the late 1400s, indicating that this is a contemporary portrait, rather than an image of the historical saint. This haunting image was influenced by the paintings of Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519), particularly in the artist’s use of smoky shadows (called sfumato) to model the flesh. It was probably painted by Marco d’Oggiono, a Milanese artist who worked in Leonardo’s studio.
  • by 1939 -
    Stanley Mortimer, Sr. (1890-1947), New York (as attributed to de Predis)
    1976
    (Christie's, London, November 26, 1976, no. 68 [as by Boltraffio])
    1978
    (P. & D. Colnaghi & Co. Ltd., London [as by Ambrogio de Predis])
    - 1986
    (Eugene V. Thaw), sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1986.
  • New York World's Fair, George Henry McCall, and Wilhelm Reinhold Valentiner. Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture from 1300-1800. [New York]: [Printed by Publishers Printing Company], 1939. Mentioned: p. 141, no. 290
    Rama, Elena. “Un tentative di rilettura della ritrattistica di Boltraffio fra Quattrocento e Cinquecento,” Arte Lombarda 64 no. 1 (1983), 79-92. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 82, fig. 8 www.jstor.org
    Turner, Evan H. "The Year in Review for 1986." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 74, no. 2 (1987): 38-79. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 45-46 www.jstor.org
    Brown, David Alan. “Some Observations about the Exhibition ‘Disegni e dipinti Leonardeschi dale Collezioni Milanesi’.” Raccolta Vinciana 23 (1989): 27-32. Mentioned and Reproduced p. 29, 31 ill.
    Baudequin, Jean-Christophe, in Disegno: Les dessins italiens du Musée de Rennes. Patrick Ramade et al. Exh. Cat. Galleria Estense, Modena, and Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rennes, 1990. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 30, under no. 9
    Brown, David Alan. “The Master of the ‘Madonna Litta’.” in Maria Teresa Fiorio and Pietro C. Marani, eds, I leonardeschi a Milano: fortuna e collezionismo (Ente Raccolta Vinciana, Atti del Convegno Internazionale, 1990), 25-34. Milan: Electa, 1991. Mentioned: p. 28, 33; note 28
    Chiyo Ishikawa, “Leonardo: Observer and Observed,” in Leonardo Lives: The Codex Leicester and Leonardo da Vinci’s Legacy of Art and Science, 21-41. Chiyo Ishikawa and Trevor Fairbrother. Exh. cat. Seattle Art Museum, in association with University of Washington Press, 1997. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 28–30, ill. fig. 1
    Fiorio, Maria Teresa. “In margine al de Predis.” In Marco Rossi and Alessandro Rovetta, eds, Studi di storia dell’arte in onore di Maria Teresa Gatti Perer, 149-155. Milano: Vita e pensiero, 1999. Mentioned: p. 154, note 16
    Bora, Giulio. “Les léonardesques: Léonard de Vinci et les ‘léonardesques’ lombards.” In Léonard de Vinci: dessins et manuscrits, 311-334. Françoise Viatte, Varena Forcione et al. Exh. cat. Musée du Louvre, Paris, in association with Réunion des musées nationaux, May 5-July 14, 2003. Reproduced: fig. 96; Mentioned: p. 320–321
    Koos, Marianne. “Amore dolce-amaro: Giorgione und das ideale Knabenbildnis der venezianischen Renaissancemalerei.” Marburger Jahrbuch für Kusntwissenschaft 33 (2006): 113-174 Mentioned: p. 122 www.jstor.org
    Passoni, Maria Cristina, In Capolavori da scoprire: la collezione Borromeo. Mauro Natale and Andrea Di Lorenzo, eds. Exh. cat. Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan, in association with Milan: Skira, 2006. Mentioned: p. 170–172, under no. 16
    Ballarin, Alessandro, with the collaboration of Marialucia Menegatti and Barbara Maria Savy. Leonardo a Milano. Problemi di leonardismo Milanese tra Quattrocento e Cinquecento. Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio prima della pala Casio, 4 vols [Verona]: Edizioni dell'Aurora, 2010. Mentioned: vol. 1, p. 17–19, 31, 32, 661, 662, 663, 664, 665, 671, 675
    Koos, Marianne. "Das Martyrium Der Liebe: Ambiguität in Dosso Dossis ‚Heiligem Sebastian‘." Marburger Jahrbuch Für Kunstwissenschaft 38 (2011): 43-73. Mentioned: p. 55-56; Reproduced: fig. 15 www.jstor.org
    Bruel, Marie-Elisabeth and Jean-Thomas Bruel. La chapelle de Jean II de Bourbon à la collégiale de Moulins: chef-d'œuvre oublié de Hugo van der Goes et manifeste du pouvoir. Moulins: Société bourbonnaise des études locales 2014. Reproduced: p. 126, no. 14; p. 127, no. 15; Mentioned: p. 125 &129, Note 259
    Quattrini, Cristina, in Raffaello e l’eco del Mito. Maria Cristina Rodeschini Galati, ed. Exh. cat. Bergamo, Accademia Carrara, in association with Venezia: Marsilio, 2018. Mentioned: p. 69, 78; Reproduced and mentioned: p. 194-195, cat. 25
    Gebhardt, Johannes, Frank Zöllner, Leonardo, and Jack Wasserman. Paragone: Leonardo in comparison. 2021, 36. Mentioned and reproduced; pp. 36-37, fig. 8.
    Donetti, Dario, Hana Gründler, Mandy Richter, and Alessandro Nova. Viaggio nel Nord Italia: studi di cultura visiva in onore di Alessandro Nova. Firenze : Centro Di, 2022. Mentioned and reproduced: PP. 254-257, no. XLVII
  • Leonardo da Vinci. Musée du Louvre, Paris, France (organizer) (October 24, 2019-February 24, 2020).
    Raffaello e l’eco del Mito. Accademia Carrara, Bergamo (January 27–May 6, 2018), no. 25.
    Raffaello. Intorno al San Sebastiano della Carrara. Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea Accademia Carrara di Bergamo, Bergamo, Italy (January 27-May 6, 2018).
    Leonardo Lives: The Codex Leicester and Leonardo da Vinci's Legacy of Art and Science . Seattle Art Museum (organizer) (October 23, 1997-January 4, 1998).
    Leonardo Lives: The Codex Leicester and Leonardo da Vinci's Legacy of Art and Science. Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA (Oct. 23, 1997 - Jan. 4, 1998), no. 30.
    Year in Review for 1986. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 4-March 15, 1987).
    Paintings by Old Masters. Colnaghi, London (June 7-July 7, 1978), reproduced.
    Masterpieces of Art. New York World's Fair (1939), no. 290.
  • {{cite web|title=Portrait of a Youth as Saint Sebastian|url=false|author=Marco d'Oggiono|year=late 1480s|access-date=23 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1986.9