St. Sebastian Thrown into the Cloaca Maxima

Ludovico Carracci's St. Sebastian Thrown into the Cloaca Maxima (1612) depicts the second martyrdom of Sebastian — the Roman soldier-saint was first shot with arrows (and survived), then beaten to death and his body thrown into the Cloaca Maxima, Rome's great sewer. This second, grimmer episode was far less commonly depicted than the arrow martyrdom, and Ludovico's choice of subject reflects the Counter-Reformation emphasis on graphic martyrdom as a devotional stimulus. Ludovico, the eldest of the three Carracci who transformed Italian painting around 1600, brought an intense, dramatically lit approach to religious subjects that influenced the entire subsequent generation of Baroque painters.

Ludovico employs dramatic chiaroscuro and a dark, earthy palette to convey the violence and indignity of the subject. The physical effort of the executioners and the dead weight of Sebastian's body are rendered with naturalist directness. Strong tonal contrasts model the figures against the shadowed background.