Saint Sebastian

In August 1653 a letter recorded the gift of this canvas, painted the year before, to Cardinal Giovan Carlo de' Medici. It did not go to a church. The cardinal kept it in his casino among the Orti Oricellari gardens on Via della Scala, a pleasure house his brother the grand duke had given him, and he was the Medici who looked after Florence's theatres and its new opera academy.

Sebastian was an officer in Diocletian's guard, shot with arrows once his Christianity became known. Guercino sets the body against a dark landscape and lights it like a piece of ancient marble. The angel in the upper left corner is the thing to find. The two of them are looking straight at each other, and the same light that surrounds the angel is what catches the martyr's eyes.