St Sebastian
by GLESKER, Justus, Ivory, height of the figure 36 cm
This small ivory statuette shows St Sebastian, his suffering represented with striking Baroque pathos. The figure is extraordinarily rich in anatomical detail, developing an ingenious rhythm as the flow of movement is interrupted several times. Alessandro Vittoria’s St Sebastian must have served as a model for this ivory statuette.
In the naturalistic, anatomically detailed representations of the naked body, he reveals his exceptional artistic talents as well as his thorough training in the sculptural art of antiquity and the Italian Renaissance.