Cleveland Museum of Art
Portrait of a Youth as Saint Sebastian
Marco d'OggionoLinkedCulture matchlcp-b055da378c10
- Date
- late 1480s
- Medium
- oil on wood, transferred to pressed wood
- Culture
- Italy, 15th century
- Department
- European Painting and Sculpture
- Institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
- Object ID
- 153406
From the Cleveland Museum of Art record
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. While Marco d'Oggiono made numerous copies of the masterpieces of his teacher Leonardo da Vinci, this is an original composition.
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Provenance & credit
As published by the source institution. Coverage varies — not every institution's open-data feed includes ownership history.
- Credit line
- John L. Severance Fund
- 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.
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