The ''Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian'' is a work by Piero del Pollaiuolo, commissioned by the Florentine

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and now in the

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History

The Pucci family commissioned it as the altarpiece for the family chapel, the oratory dedicated to Saint Sebastian in the church of Santissima Annunziata, Florence. Giorgio Vasari dates it to 1475 but misattributes it to Piero's brother, the more famous and artistically talented

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– a misattribution that lasted until the present day. Roberto Pucci withdrew the work from the oratory on the pretext of restoration but then in 1857 sold it to the National Gallery.

Analysis

It is considered Piero's masterpiece, with a more rigid geometric control on the composition than in his previous works, without giving up his usual naturalness of poses and movement – the four archers in the foreground form two symmetrical poses, with the two central ones reloading and the two on the edges firing, in perfect equilibrium either side of the central post to which Sebastian is tied. It can be contrasted with its near-contemporary, the '' Saint Sebastian'' by

Botticelli Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi ( – May 17, 1510), known as Sandro Botticelli (, ), was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. Botticelli's posthumous reputation suffered until the late 19th century, when he was rediscovered ...

, which instead puts the figure of the saint in isolation in a Flemish-inspired landscape. Borrowed from the Botticelli painting is the '' San Sebastiano'' by Francesco Botticini, formerly attributed to Andrea del Castagno, dated to the years immediately after 1474.

Gallery

Image:Sandro Botticelli 054.jpg, Sandro Botticelli, ''San Sebastiano'', Berlin, Gemäldegalerie, 1474 Image:Andrea del Castagno 003.jpg, Francesco Botticini, ''San Sebastiano'', New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, post 1474

Bibliography

*Aldo Galli, ''I Pollaiolo'', "Galleria delle arti" series number 7, Milano, 5 Continents Editions, 2005, p. 36. *Alessandro Cecchi, ''Botticelli e l’età di Lorenzo il Magnifico'', in the series "I grandi maestri dell’arte. L’artista e il suo tempo", Firenze, E – ducation.it, 2007, p. 115.
National Gallery site
{{Piero del Pollaiuolo Collections of the National Gallery, London Paintings about death Christian art about death Altarpieces Pollaiuolo Torture in art Paintings by Piero del Pollaiuolo