Portrait of a Youth as Saint Sebastian

About the Artwork

Sebastian, a bodyguard for the ancient Roman emperor Diocletian, was shot with arrows and was eventually drowned for his commitment to Christianity. While the arrow alludes to Saint Sebastian, the young man’s clothing dates to the late 1400s, indicating that this is a contemporary portrait, rather than an image of the historical saint. This haunting image was influenced by the paintings of Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519), particularly in the artist’s use of smoky shadows (called sfumato) to model the flesh. It was painted by Marco d’Oggiono, a Milanese artist who worked in Leonardo’s studio.

Exhibition history

Year in Review for 1986. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 4-March 15, 1987). Leonardo Lives: The Codex Leicester and Leonardo da Vinci's Legacy of Art and Science . Seattle Art Museum (organizer) (October 23, 1997-January 4, 1998). Raffaello. Intorno al San Sebastiano della Carrara. Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea Accademia Carrara di Bergamo, Bergamo, Italy (January 27-May 6, 2018). Leonardo da Vinci. Musée du Louvre, Paris, France (organizer) (October 24, 2019-February 24, 2020). Growing Up in a Renaissance Palazzo. The Hyde Collection, Glens Falls, NY (organizer) (October 5, 2024-January 5, 2025) https://www.hydecollection.org/exhibition/growing-up-in-a-renaissance-palazzo/.

Quick Overview

Artist: Marco d'Oggiono (Italian, 1460-1524)
Date: late 1480s
Medium: oil on wood, transferred to pressed wood
Dimensions: Framed: 47.5 x 41 x 4 cm (18 11/16 x 16 1/8 x 1 9/16 in.); Unframed: 30.5 x 24 cm (12 x 9 7/16 in.)
Type: Painting
Classification: Painting
Department: European Painting and Sculpture
Credit line: John L. Severance Fund
Accession no.: 1986.9

Provenance

by 1939 -: Stanley Mortimer, Sr. (1890-1947), New York (as attributed to de Predis) 1976: (Christie's, London, November 26, 1976, no. 68 [as by Boltraffio]) 1978: (P. & D. Colnaghi & Co. Ltd., London [as by Ambrogio de Predis]) - 1986: (Eugene V. Thaw), sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1986.

Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.