Today, January 20, is the feast day of Saint Sebastian of Rome, patron saint of the Amsterdam Archery Guild. The Amsterdam Museum owns the regalia of this guild, including the drinking horn. The richly decorated silver foot of this horn, which was passed from hand to hand during the shooting festivities, is ‘adorned’ with a torture scene. A curious combination. Or not?
Drinking horn of the Guild of Saint Sebastian, 1566, Amsterdam Museum Collection
The young man tied to the tree and riddled with arrows is Saint Sebastian of Rome, the namesake and patron saint of this guild. Little is known regarding the saint’s life. Sebastian is the product of rich medieval imagination. There is hardly any historical basis for its existence. Yet he ranks high on the list of universally revered saints.
Saint Sebastian
Sebastiaan is said to have been born in Narbonne. According to an early biography from the fifth century, he served as an officer in the army under Emperor Diocletian. The young officer is a pious man. At the time of the persecution of Christians, the mothers of Marcus and Marcellianus ask him for help for their sons sentenced to death. Sebastiaan strengthens both men in their faith. They die as Christians. The emperor’s confidant is then called to account and charged by his lord. His execution takes place in Rome. He is bound, arrow-riddled, and left more dead than alive by his executioners. Under the caring hands of Saint Irene, he visibly improves. When he encounters the emperor during one of his walks, he reproaches him for his cruelty. Enough is enough. Sebastiaan is grabbed and clubbed to death. He dies in the year 288. His lifeless body is thrown into the Cloaca Maxima to prevent him from being venerated as a martyr. It turns out differently. Sebastian appears to Saint Luciana Anicia in her dreams and indicates where he wants to be buried. She fishes him out of Rome’s largest sewer and buries him in the catacombs on the Via Appia, where a basilica dedicated to him was built in the fourth century. From that moment his worship starts.
Sebastian’s name is soon associated with all kinds of patrons. He is now the protector of athletes and wallpaperers to firefighters and ironmongers, but also of the shooters and their guilds, especially the longbow guilds. In addition, he is invoked once morest numerous mainly infectious diseases, including the plague.
Juan Carreño de Miranda, Saint Sebastian, 1655-1656, Long-term loan Rijksmuseum Amsterdam
Sexy Sebastian
From the fifteenth century Sebastian is depicted almost naked tied to a tree or pole, his arms tied behind his back, his body full of arrows. Italian painters and sculptors see Sebastian as a rewarding object of study for the representation of the male nude. In addition, it is especially popular with religious women. The half-naked young man, straight in body and limbs, in contrast to the emaciated Christ, makes many a late medieval nun’s heart beat faster in the solitude of the convent cell. Sebastian is now, among other things, the patron saint of homosexuals. His patronage portfolio is still well filled.
