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Lot Essay
"As a child I was fascinated by the grandeur of the Church and by the stories of tortured saints my grandmother used to tell me [...] The Roman Catholic Church had a tremendous influence over me, not its dogmas but its grand architecture and the splendor of its services. The priest dressed in richly embroidered vestments, the wooden saints painted with gold and bright colours staring vacantly out of their niches." (F.N. Souza, Words & Lines, London, 1959, pp. 9-10)
St. Sebastian, who appears in many of Souza works, is historically an officer of the Imperial Roman army who aided imprisoned Christians. He was tied to a tree and shot by arrows, miraculously surviving only to be murdered shortly thereafter. The arrows, indicative of his resilience and loyalty to Christ, became his distinguishing attribute. St. Sebastian's importance grew during the 14th century bubonic plague, when villagers turned to him for guidance, equating the seemingly random boils of infection with the wounds from being shot by an army of unseen archers.
The importance of this work is further emphasized by the suggestion of Souza's own likeness in the male figure. The artist whose own features were permanently marred as a young child after enduring a vicious bout with smallpox, may have related to St. Sebastian in the same way as the 14th century villagers. Crosshatching and the forceful application of black lines with thick blood-like impasto drips from the side of St. Sebastian's wounds while black tears run down his cheeks. The earliest paintings of St. Sebastian, in seventh and eighth century mosaics depict a bearded man in court dress often grotesque in expression and posture. In the renniassance period, Andrea Montegna and Peter Paul Rubens created the two most iconic images of the Saint. Souza, like any great artist, made this subject his own. Sebastian becomes a self-portrait of the artist and in the process Souza strips St. Sebastian of his luminous beauty and reverts back to earlier depictions taking the harsh reality of his martyrdom and murder one step further, while adding the grandeur of the church - the ecclesiastic robes and gold, bright colors that enamourded him in his childhood.
St. Sebastian, who appears in many of Souza works, is historically an officer of the Imperial Roman army who aided imprisoned Christians. He was tied to a tree and shot by arrows, miraculously surviving only to be murdered shortly thereafter. The arrows, indicative of his resilience and loyalty to Christ, became his distinguishing attribute. St. Sebastian's importance grew during the 14th century bubonic plague, when villagers turned to him for guidance, equating the seemingly random boils of infection with the wounds from being shot by an army of unseen archers.
The importance of this work is further emphasized by the suggestion of Souza's own likeness in the male figure. The artist whose own features were permanently marred as a young child after enduring a vicious bout with smallpox, may have related to St. Sebastian in the same way as the 14th century villagers. Crosshatching and the forceful application of black lines with thick blood-like impasto drips from the side of St. Sebastian's wounds while black tears run down his cheeks. The earliest paintings of St. Sebastian, in seventh and eighth century mosaics depict a bearded man in court dress often grotesque in expression and posture. In the renniassance period, Andrea Montegna and Peter Paul Rubens created the two most iconic images of the Saint. Souza, like any great artist, made this subject his own. Sebastian becomes a self-portrait of the artist and in the process Souza strips St. Sebastian of his luminous beauty and reverts back to earlier depictions taking the harsh reality of his martyrdom and murder one step further, while adding the grandeur of the church - the ecclesiastic robes and gold, bright colors that enamourded him in his childhood.