Saint Sebastian,
oil on canvas, 103.5 x 81.5 cm, framed

Alessandro Morandotti has suggested an attribution to Mattia Preti (Taverna 1613–1699 Valletta) for the present painting and he dates it to Preti’s early Roman period of the late 1630s. It could be one of the earliest expressions of the young artist’s interpretation of Caravaggesque naturalism. Indeed, Caravaggio’s pictorial language is clearly apparent in the present composition, in the use of the contrasted, raking light, falling across the features of the saint. The present canvas also reveals the influence of Jusepe de Ribera, who also created naturalistic images of saints and apostles, characterised by realism and highly contrasted lighting effects. Images of saints were favoured by the followers of Caravaggio as they provided the opportunity for pictorial depiction of humility, suffering, and spirituality.

Mattia Preti was one of the foremost Italian Baroque painters and was celebrated for his vibrant paintings executed across a long career and across a large geographic area, encompassing Rome, Modena, Naples, and Malta. He arrived in Rome by 1632 and attained his first success by gaining the patronage of two papal families through Olimpia Aldobrandini and her sister-in-law Olimpia Maidalchini, earning the prestigious commission for a fresco cycle (1650–51) behind the high altar at Sant’Andrea della Valle in Rome. Despite this, scholarship has mostly neglected the two decades the painter spent in Rome (circa 1632–53), in favour of his later years in Naples and Malta.

Mattia Preti was also influenced by the work of two other great Caravaggio followers, Bartolomeo Manfredi (1582–1622) and Valentin de Boulogne (1591–1632). Their influence is particularly apparent in his early Caravaggesque works characterised by the master’s naturalism and chiaroscuro. By the 1640s he most likely travelled to Venice, where he would have seen the works of Tintoretto (1519–1594) and Veronese (1528–1588). This led to experimentations with a lighter palette and more theatrical staging. This neo-Venetian trend, including the paintings of the classicists such as Lanfranco and Guercino, changed Preti’s Style noticeably. Considering stylistic similarities between the young Preti and Guercino (Preti, according to De Dominici, became Guercino’s apprentice in Cento after having been so enthralled by Guercino’s Santa Petronilla which he saw in St. Peter; see B. De Dominici, Notizie della vita del Cavaliere Fra Mattia Preti, Malta 1864, pp. 10–12, 29), it is not surprising that some scholars have even considered the present painting to be a work by Guercino.

The martyrdom of Saint Sebastian was a recurrent theme in Preti’s work, and he painted several variations, including for churches in Malta, Naples and Taverna, his native town in Calabria, whose patron saint was Saint Sebastian. The hagiography of the martyr is familiar: the young Gallo-Roman centurion from Narbonne was condemned to death for being a Christian while serving in Rome during the reign of the Emperor Diocletian (284 to 305). Here he is shown being pierced by the hail of arrows; all the power of the painting lies in his confident gaze fixed on heaven.