Martyrdom of St. Sebastian 

Jusepe de Ribera painted the Martyrdom of St. Sebastian in the first half of the 17th century. He worked in Naples, then under Spanish rule, and this canvas shows us a very particular vision of religious ecstasy. Ribera was known as ‘Lo Spagnoletto’, the little Spaniard, and you see here the influence of Spanish art and theatre, a flair for the dramatic, and a willingness to show religious subjects in a very human light. Think of the Catholic Church as an institution, and how it was trying at this time to bring people back to the faith after the rise of Protestantism. This is the Counter-Reformation, when the Church used art to inspire, to move, and even to shock. It was a propaganda war fought with images. If we want to understand the art of the past, we need to understand the battles over belief and power that shaped it. That’s why we art historians spend our time reading old books and documents. It is how we can begin to understand the world that helped to form Ribera's vision.