Madonna and Child with Saint Sebastian

This canvas has travelled under several names. An inventory of the Gonzaga dukes of Mantua, drawn up in 1626, probably lists it as a Giovanni Bellini. Within a year or two it belonged to Charles I of England, who bought much of the Mantua collection, and when his pictures were sold off at Somerset House in 1651, two years after his execution, it appeared as a Palma Vecchio. It passed to the De Critz family of painters in London, then to the Duchess of Aiguillon, Cardinal Richelieu's niece, and by 1810 it was in the Louvre, entered simply as Venetian School. Today the museum gives it to Cariani and dates it to about 1517 to 1523. The Virgin holds the Child, and beside them stands Saint Sebastian, the martyr shot with arrows, to whom Venetians prayed in times of plague.