Saint Sebastian Tended by Irene (Ter Brugghen)
| Saint Sebastian Tended by Irene | |
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| Artist | Hendrick ter Brugghen |
| Year | 1625 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 149 cm × 119.4 cm (49 in × 16 in) |
| Location | Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin |
| Website | oberlin.edu |
Saint Sebastian Tended by Irene is an oil-on-canvas painting by Hendrick ter Brugghen dated to 1625. Now in the Allen Memorial Art Museum of Oberlin, Ohio, the piece depicts the Roman Catholic subject of Saint Sebastian being saved by Irene of Rome and her maid following his attempted martyrdom by the Roman authorities. An exemplary piece of the Italianate Baroque tendency in Dutch Golden Age painting, the painting employs dramatic uses of light and skillful chiaroscuro to depict its religious subject, evidence of influence from Caravaggio and Ter Brugghen's fellow Utrecht Caravaggisti.
It was described by Seymour Slive as ter Brugghen's "masterpiece": "the large, full, forms of the group have been knit together into a magnificent design, and what could have been hard and sculptural is remarkably softened by the soft, silvery light which plays over Sebastian's half-dead, olive-grey body as well as the reds, creamy whites, and plum colours worn by the women who tend the saint".
The piece is recorded in the collection of Pieter Eris in Amsterdam during the 1660s. Its full provenance remains speculation; perhaps it was intended for a charitable institution where the sick were cared for, such as those with the plague which became prevalent in the Netherlands around the 1600s. Others supposed it was intended for a hidden church or private chapel, and then later reached the art market. It has also been suggested that the painting was commissioned by a schutterij (militia company) though this idea has generally been dismissed. It seems most likely to have been commissioned by Catholics, as the subject is virtually specific to Counter-Reformation art, though Ter Brugghen was himself Protestant. The painting eventually found its way to a Frederick Mont, from whom the painting was purchased by Oberlin College in 1953. The piece has been exhibited in the Washington, D.C.’s National Gallery of Art, Utrecht’s Centraal Museum and New York’s The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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