Reliquary: Saint Sebastian

Inscriptions

Not signed.

Label

Catholics venerated Saint Sebastian for his ability to intercede and offer protection from the plague. Many would make pilgrimages to sites with his relics seeking cures for illness. Notice the empty cavity carved into this figure’s chest, which would have held the relics associated with the saint. What does it mean for something sacred to be set apart from that which made it so? What is a reliquary without the relic?

The arrow wounds across Sebastian’s body are associated with the saint’s martyrdom. This connects to the Christian concept of the mortification of the flesh, humbling the body as a form of purification. In the 17th century, pilgrimage was a potentially dangerous undertaking. Part of receiving the blessing of visiting a relic was accepting the hazards and sacrifices it might take to get there. What is the relationship between the physical body and the transformative and transitory elements of pilgrimage?

From the 2022 exhibition A Space for Dialogue 108, Journeys Beyond: Faces and Forms of Pilgrimage, curated by Emily Charland '19, Erbe Intern

This reliquary, an object made to hold the relic of a particular saint or religious figure, depicts Saint Sebastian, an early Christian martyr. According to traditional belief, Saint Sebastian was tied to a tree and shot with arrows. Miraculously, he survived. See if you can spot the fragments of arrows that would have been embedded in this piece.

A relic—either a bone fragment from the saint or some object associated with him—would have been placed in the cavity in the figure’s torso. Because of its small size, this object may have been used for private devotion rather than public. It is also representative of the portable reliquaries taken from Europe to the colonies, which inspired recently converted Indigenous makers.

Written by Carson Riggs ’23

From the 2023 exhibition Faith and Empire: The Legacy of Conversion and Commerce in the Early Modern World, curated by students of ARTH 20.04, "Faith and Empire: Art in the Early Modern World" taught by Elizabeth Rice Mattison, Andrew W. Mellon Associate Curator of Academic Programming

Course History

HIST 96.39, Saints and Material Devotion, Cecilia Gaposchkin, Fall 2021

HIST 96.39, Saints and Relics, Cecilia Gaposchkin, Fall 2021

ARTH 27.02, Living Stone: Sculpture in Early Modern Italy, Elizabeth Kassler-Taub, Winter 2022

ARTH 27.02, Living Stone: Sculpture in Early Modern Italy, Elizabeth Kassler-Taub, Winter 2022

ARTH 27.02, Living Stone: Sculpture in Early Modern Italy, Elizabeth Kassler-Taub, Winter 2022

ANTH 55.01, Anthropology of Global Health, Anne Sosin, Fall 2022

Humanities 2.01, The Modern Labyrinth, Lucas Hollister, Petra McGillen, Andrea Tarnowski, Laura Edmondson, Winter 2023

Italian 3.01, Introductory Italian III, Matteo Gilebbi, Winter 2023

Art History 20.04, Faith and Empire, Beth Mattison, Spring 2023

Exhibition History

A Space for Dialogue 108, Journeys Beyond: Faces and Forms of Pilgrimage, Alvin P. Gutman Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover New Hampshire, August 27 - October 22, 2022.

Art That Lives? Exploring Figural Art from Africa, Allvin P. Gutman Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, July 25, 2009-July 2010.

Barrows Print Room, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, April 5-24, 1974.

Faith and Empire: The Legacy of Conversion and Commerce in the Early Modern World, Class of 1967 Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, August 12-December 23, 2023.

Provenance

17th century-1958 ownership history unknown; Raymond G. Clifton (1895-1968), Pine Cupboard Antique Shop, Franklin, New Hampshire; sold to present collection, 1958,

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