Antonio and Piero del Pollaiolo
The amazing altarpiece that we present today was painted in the mid-1470s by two brothers, Antonio and Piero del Pollaiuolo, for the Pucci family chapel in Florence. It is the most ambitious painting by Piero, a milestone in Renaissance art in showing muscular figures in action. The artists used this large scale to show off their talent for perspective and for geometrical structure. The monumental figures of Sebastian and his tormentors make a giant triangle in the foreground, with the archers' arms and legs pressing up against the sides of the painting. Behind them the winding river draws our eyes into the blue distance.
The altarpiece tells a story taken from the Golden Legend (a collection of hagiographies by Jacobus de Voragine that was widely read in late medieval Europe) of Saint Sebastian who was sentenced to death after being discovered to be a Christian. He was bound to a stake and shot with arrows. Here, the six archers have three basic poses, turned through space and seen from different angles. This helps produce the three-dimensional solidity of each figure and together they define the foreground space.
P.S. June is a LGBTQ+ Pride month. In DailyArt Magazine we explain why St. Sebastian is considered a gay icon!
P.P.S. If you are going to visit the National Gallery, don't forget to include our handcrafted Art Journals. We took them to the Uffizi and they worked like a charm!