Saint Sebastian Interceding for the Plague Stricken

Josse Lieferinxe's Saint Sebastian Interceding for the Plague Stricken, painted around 1498 and now in the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, depicts the great altarpiece program devoted to Sebastian that Lieferinxe, a painter from the Flemish-trained Marseille tradition, created for the church of Saint Mary of the Steps in Marseille. Sebastian, the Roman soldier martyred by arrows under Diocletian, was among the most important intercessory saints against the plague — the arrows that pierced his body were interpreted as analogous to the arrows of divine wrath that brought plague, and his miraculous survival gave hope to plague sufferers.

Oil on panel with Lieferinxe's synthesis of Flemish naturalism and Provençal painting conventions. Sebastian is shown in the heavenly realm, his arrows still visible, interceding for the plague-stricken below.