The San Sebastiano Madonna is an oil on canvas painting by Correggio, dating to around 1524 and now in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

. It measures 265 by 161 cm. It was commissioned by the confraternity of Saint Sebastian (''San Sebastiano'') in

Modena Modena (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language#Dialects, Modenese, Mòdna ; ett, Mutna; la, Mutina) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern I ...

, probably via sodalist Francesco Grillenzoni, who

Vasari Giorgio Vasari (, also , ; 30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian Renaissance Master, who worked as a painter, architect, engineer, writer, and historian, who is best known for his work ''The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculpt ...

recorded as "a very close friend of Correggio" and owner of '' The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine''.

Saint Roch Roch (lived c. 1348 – 15/16 August 1376/79 (traditionally c. 1295 – 16 August 1327, also called Rock in English, is a Catholic saint, a confessor whose death is commemorated on 16 August and 9 September in Italy; he is especially invoked a ...

's presence on the right suggests the commission was linked to a plague, probably that in Modena in 1523, leading to a painting date in 1524. Vasari briefly mentions it in its original site. In the 17th century

Francesco I d'Este Francesco I d'Este (6 September 1610 – 14 October 1658) was Duke of Modena and Reggio from 1629 until his death. The eldest son of Alfonso III d'Este, he became reigning duke after his father's abdication. Biography The pestilence of 1630–16 ...

took it for his own gallery, where it was admired by Francesco Scannelli. Like most of the d'Este collection it was bought in August 1746 by Augustus III of Saxony, who took it to Dresden. It became famous early on, as shown by copies in print by

Carlo Bertelli Carlo is a given name. It is an Italian form of Charles. It can refer to: *Carlo (name) *Monte Carlo *Carlingford, New South Wales, a suburb in north-west Sydney, New South Wales, Australia *A satirical song written by Dafydd Iwan about Prince Char ...

and in paint by Federico Zuccari.

References

Paintings of the Madonna and Child by Correggio 1524 paintings Collections of the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister category:Paintings of Saint Roch Este collection {{16C-painting-stub