Saint Sebastian

1440/1460

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    woodcut in black, hand-colored in red lake, red-orange, green, yellow, and tan

  • Credit Line

    Rosenwald Collection

  • Dimensions

    sheet: 29.4 x 20 cm (11 9/16 x 7 7/8 in.)
    overall (external frame dimensions): 59.7 x 44.5 cm (23 1/2 x 17 1/2 in.)

  • Accession

    1943.3.629

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    Schreiber, Vol. *, no. 1676, State c

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

(sale, C.G. Boerner, Leipzig, Cat. 175, 6-9 May 1930, no. 516); Martin Aufhäuser [1875-1944], Munich, Holland, and Los Angeles; [1] purchased by Lessing J. Rosenwald (L. Supp. 1760c), Jenkintown, PA, 1939; gift to NGA, 1943.
[1] For complete information on Aufhäuser's collection, see Rosenwald Papers, box 9, and Richard S. Field, Fifteenth Century Woodcuts and Metalcuts, Washington, D.C., 1965, Preface (np).

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1941

  • The First Century of Printmaking 1400-1500, The Art Institute of Chicago, 1941, no. 9, repro.

1955

  • French Woodcuts, Engravings and Books of the 15th and Early 16th Centuries, The Davison Art Center, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT, 1955.

1956

  • Selected Prints from the Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection, City Art Museum, St. Louis, MO, 1956.

1962

  • The Saints in Prints & Illuminations from the Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection, The Art Gallery of the University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, 1962-1963, no. 39.

1965

  • Fifteenth-Century Woodcuts and Metalcuts from the Collection of the National Gallery of Art, NGA, 1965-1966, no. 244, repro.

1973

  • Fifteenth- and Sixteenth-Century Prints of Northern Europe from the National Gallery of Art Rosenwald Collection, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 1973, no. 1.

1974

  • The Fable of the Sick Lion: A Fifteenth-Century Blockbook, Davison Art Center, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT, 1974, no. 11, repro.

1982

  • Lessing J. Rosenwald: Tribute to a Collector, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1982, no. 1, repro.

2005

  • Origins of European Printmaking: Fifteenth-Century Woodcuts and Their Public, NGA and Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg, 2005-2006, no. 96, repro.

Bibliography

1926

  • Schreiber, Wilhelm Ludwig. Handbuch de Holz- und Metailschnitte des XV Jahrhunderts. 8 vols. Leipzig: Verlag Karl W. Hierseman, 1926-1930.

1965

  • Field, Richard S. Fifteenth Century Woodcuts and Metalcuts from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.. Exh. cat. Washington: National Gallery of Art, 1965: no. 244.

1982

  • Fine, Ruth E. Lessing J. Rosenwald: Tribute to a Collector. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1982, no. 1.

1996

  • Hults, Linda C. The Print in the Western World. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1996, 29-30; fig.1.11, 30.

Inscriptions

across bottom, in block: Commemoracio beati Sebastiani martiris Antiphona - / Obsecro te beate sebastinane [sic] quia magna est fides tua intercede pro nobis ad dominum / Jhesum Christum vt a peste siue morbo ypidimie liberemur. Versiculus: Ora pro nobis beate / sebastiane . Responsio . Vt digne efficiamur promissionibus Christi - Oracio - / Omnipotens sempiterne deus qui meritis beati Sebastiani martiris tui gloriosissi / mi quedam generalem pestem ypidimie hominibus mortiferam revocasti ppraesta / supplicibus tuis ut qui hanc oracionem super se portauerit aut domibus mansienibus / que suis uel de ea in cordibus ipsorum memoriam habuerint in tuo nomine a[...?]e festi- / uitatis die deuote legerint pro similique peste ypidimie reuocanda sub eius confiden / cia ad te confugerint ipsius precibus et meritis ab ipsa peste et morbo ac ab omni / bus nocumentis venenosis nec non ab omnibus corporis et anime periculis / ac subitanea et inprouisa morte et ab omnibus inimicis visibilibus et invi / silibus singulis diebus horis ac momenties liberemur per Christum donimum. (I beseech you blessed Sebastian, for great is your faith, to intercede for us with the Lord Jesus Christ that we may be delivered from pestilence or epidemic. Versicle: Pray for us blessed Sebastian. Response: that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. - Almighty everlasting God, who through the merits of blessed Sebastian has revoked that widespread pestilence deadly to men, grant your supplicants who carry this prayer about with them, or have it installed in their homes, or have the memory of it in their hearts, and who have gathered devoutly on the day of your feast and have fled to you with confidence, that he [Sebastian] will revoke the plague, and that through his prayers and merits we shall be delivered from this pestilence and disease from all poison, from all dangers to the body and the spirit, from sudden and unexpected death, and from all enemies visible and invisible every day, hour, and moment through Christ the Lord. [translation from Parshall, Peter, and Rainer Schoch. Origins of European Printmaking: Fifteenth-Century Woodcuts and Their Public. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 2005, p. 305.]); verso, lower right, in brown ink: D.G.

Watermarks

Gothic P w/ flower *

Wikidata ID

Q64953097

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