Der heilige Sebastian

By 1618 Rubens was as much a merchant and diplomat as a painter, running a busy Antwerp workshop and always trading. That year he offered a bundle of his own pictures to Sir Dudley Carleton, the English ambassador at The Hague, in exchange for Carleton's collection of ancient Greek and Roman marbles. Among them was very likely this Saint Sebastian, which Rubens pitched as the finest flower of his work. The saint stands larger than life, a young soldier tied to a tree and pierced with arrows, his body built like an antique statue, fitting given what Rubens wanted for it. The deep shadow and the sharp still life of bow, quiver and arrows at his feet show how closely he had studied Caravaggio in Italy. One arrow has caught him just below the ribs.