Saint Sebastian bound for Martyrdom (after Van Dyck)

Isaac Seeman (fl.1739 – London 1751). Oil painting on canvas, Saint Sebastian bound for Martyrdom (after Van Dyck) by Isaac Seeman (d.1751). A copy of the picture painted by Van Dyck early on in his time in Italy, in 1622 or 1623, now in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich (200 x 150.5 cm.; S. Barnes in Van Dyck. A Complete Catalogue of the Paintings, New Haven & London, 2004, II.18, pp.163-4). Another copy of this picture is in the Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Virginia. A version without the horsemen group in the upper-right was owned by Hall & Knight (II.17, p.163) and then by the Weiss Gallery, at which exhibition in historical reflections: early portraiture 1520 – 1780, 2007, no.16). The Lacock picture was possibly copied after the picture now in Virginia, first recorded in 1810, in the collection of Walsh Porter, in England. It is therefore conceivable that its English provenance predates this. Saint Sebastian was a 3rd -century Christian martyr, and a member of Diocletian’s guard. He survived the first attempt on his life with arrows, and died only when beaten to death with clubs, after which his body was thrown into the Cloaca Maxima. He is popular as an intercessor against the plague (of which arrows from heaven were a symbol). Van Dyck’s composition is unusual, for he is usually shown pierced with arrows. Precedents can be found in an altarpiece by Cobergher in Antwerp Cathedral, and in a print after Palma Giovane by Aegidius Sadeler. Lacock, Wiltshire