Two Women Annointing the Wounds of Saint Sebastian (recto); Study of a Nude Male Figure (verso)

Giovanni Biliverti

1585–1644 · Pen and brown ink, with brush and brown wash, over black chalk (recto); squared off in red chalk, red chalk (verso) · Drawings and Prints

Bilivert was the most successful pupil of the Florentine master Cigoli (1559-1613). Following several years in Rome, Bilivert returned to his native Florence, where he worked under the patronage of Duke Cosimo II de’ Medici and enjoyed a prosperous career. Drawn in ink over black chalk, this animated sheet depicts the third-century Roman soldier Sebastian after he was tied to a tree and shot full of arrows. His abandoned armor can be seen in the foreground, and his wounds are tended to by Irene and her maid. Though the sheet is squared for transfer, no known painting of the subject by the artist survives; perhaps it was preparatory for a now-lost painting in a Florentine collection recorded by the seventeenth-century biographer Filippo Baldinucci.

Artist

Giovanni Biliverti

Date

1585–1644

Medium

Pen and brown ink, with brush and brown wash, over black chalk (recto); squared off in red chalk, red chalk (verso)

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1947