Saint Sebastian

Antonello da Messina's Saint Sebastian, painted around 1478 and now in the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, is one of his most celebrated works. The saint's body, pierced by arrows, is set against a remarkably detailed cityscape with an astonishingly modern sense of light and space. Antonello brought Netherlandish oil painting technique to Venice on his visit around 1475-1476, profoundly influencing Giovanni Bellini and the entire subsequent Venetian tradition of luminous, atmospheric painting.

Antonello combines precise Netherlandish oil technique with Italian spatial construction, using luminous glazing for the flesh and the sophisticated urban perspective that creates one of the most convincing Renaissance cityscapes.