Soldiers Playing Cards and Dice (The Cheats) by Valentin de Boulogne

Jusepe de Ribera, The Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew, 1634, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of the 50th Anniversary Gift Committee 1990.137.1

Saint Sebastian by Tanzio da
Varallo
Tanzio da Varallo, Saint Sebastian, c. 1620/1630, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Samuel H. Kress Collection 1939.1.191

The direct style of these paintings is typical of Counter-Reformation art. After the Protestant Reformation, the Catholic Church also launched a series of reforms, now known as the Counter-Reformation. Painted images played an important role in conveying the message of the church to a largely illiterate audience, and Catholic leaders instructed artists to make sensuous, clearly intelligible, and emotionally charged paintings that viewers could easily understand. These two martyred saints are inescapably realistic. Valentin brings the realism and passion of the period’s overtly religious narratives to his image of the cardsharps.