Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00011009St. Sebastian
About the Artwork
This subtly drawn study in red chalk with ink accents depicts the moment just before the Roman soldier Sebastian was shot through with arrows for refusing to renounce his Christian faith. The young martyr turns hopefully toward heaven as if comforted by divine light. Ribera favored the subject because it allowed him to study the expressive possibilities of the bound human figure. A number of related drawings by the artist from the same period treat similar themes of saints bound in punishment. Although Spanish by birth, Jusepe de Ribera spent most of his life in Naples, where he became the dominant artistic figure until his death in 1652.
Inscriptions
lower right, in brown ink: spanolette.F; lower right, in black ink: [20?]
Provenance
?-1995: John A. Gere (1921-1995), London 1997: with C.G. Boerner, New York 1997-: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio
Exhibition history
Drawn to the Body: The Human Figure and the Graphic Arts, 1500-1900. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 14-May 23, 1999). Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000); The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (May 23-August 19, 2001); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX (October 14, 2001-January 6, 2002). Ribera: Art of Violence. Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (organizer) (September 26, 2018-January 27, 2019).
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Jusepe de Ribera (Spanish, 1591–1652)
- Date
- 1626–30
- Medium
- red chalk with pen and brown ink
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 17.3 x 12.4 cm (6 13/16 x 4 7/8 in.)
- Type
- Drawing
- Classification
- Drawing
- Department
- Drawings
- Credit line
- Delia E. Holden Fund
- Accession no.
- 1997.53
More by Jusepe de Ribera in museum collections
Open-access museum record · AT-00011009
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