Larger Than Life: Ter Brugghen’s Saint Sebastian Tended by Irene

Hendrick ter Brugghen
Saint Sebastian Tended by Irene
1625
oil on canvas
Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Ohio, R. T. Miller, Jr. Fund, 1953

Larger Than Life: Ter Brugghen’s ‘Saint Sebastian Tended by Irene’ The National Gallery of Art welcomes the Allen Memorial Art Museum of Oberlin College’s ‘Saint Sebastian Tended by Irene’ (1625) by Hendrick ter Brugghen. The painting will be the focal point of ‘Larger Than Life: Ter Brugghen’s Saint Sebastian Tended by Irene’

January 21 through May 15, 2011

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Source: National Gallery of Art, Washington
Hailed as Ter Brugghen’s masterwork, Saint Sebastian Tended by Irene will grace the walls of the West Building’s Dutch and Flemish galleries (Main Floor, Gallery 44), along with the Gallery’s magnificent Bagpipe Player (1624), also by Ter Brugghen. Although these paintings belong to different genres, they reveal the sure fluidity of brush, exquisite color harmonies, and sophisticated compositional orchestration for which the artist is renowned.

Saint Sebastian Tended by Irene depicts an episode from the life of Sebastian, a third-century Roman soldier. After refusing to renounce Christianity he was bound to a tree and shot by archers. Irene and her maidservant rescued him, removed the arrows from his flesh, and nursed his wounds. The painting’s emotional force results largely from Sebastian’s monumental form, but also from Ter Brugghen’s skillful orchestration of color and light. The glowing light he cast across the scene gently illuminates Sebastian’s near-death pallor and accents Irene’s kindly face as she gazes toward the arrows she tenderly removes from Sebastian’s side.

Painted a year before the Oberlin painting, Bagpipe Player was acquired by the National Gallery of Art in 2009. Ter Brugghen’s ability to impart a sense of dignity to his figures is particularly evident in this famous painting, despite the fact that bagpipes were associated with the lower class in his time. The silhouetted profile of the figure, his larger-than-life scale, and the broad patterns created by his instrument and clothing are all important components that make this a powerful and memorable image.