February LOVE-fest: Day 27: ecstasy
Feb. 27th, 2026 07:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stonepicnicking_okapiDay 27: Ecstasy
I can't believe February is almost done and I've not posted any art. The image my mind conjures at the word 'ecstasy' is paintings of the martyrdom of Saint Sebastian.
The caption to this [Circle of Girolamo Siciolante, St. Sebastian Receives the Palm of Martyrdom, 1570s] is:
As is usual, St. Sebastian has been stripped, tied to a tree, and shot with arrows. The headless trunk at the base of the tree refers to the previous beheading of Tiburtius, son of the prefect of Milan, whom Sebastian had recently converted along with the prefect and 1,400 others.
Not to split hairs, but in the legend the saint did not actually receive martyrdom when he was shot with the arrows shown. He died four days later, beaten to death by the servants of Diocletian and Maximian. And it is not just a palm that the angel in the painting brings, but a golden diadem as well.
Being beaten to death would not be as sexy a subject for portraiture! But that beheaded body is not exactly sexy, either! Hmm.
I can't believe February is almost done and I've not posted any art. The image my mind conjures at the word 'ecstasy' is paintings of the martyrdom of Saint Sebastian.
The caption to this [Circle of Girolamo Siciolante, St. Sebastian Receives the Palm of Martyrdom, 1570s] is:
As is usual, St. Sebastian has been stripped, tied to a tree, and shot with arrows. The headless trunk at the base of the tree refers to the previous beheading of Tiburtius, son of the prefect of Milan, whom Sebastian had recently converted along with the prefect and 1,400 others.
Not to split hairs, but in the legend the saint did not actually receive martyrdom when he was shot with the arrows shown. He died four days later, beaten to death by the servants of Diocletian and Maximian. And it is not just a palm that the angel in the painting brings, but a golden diadem as well.
Being beaten to death would not be as sexy a subject for portraiture! But that beheaded body is not exactly sexy, either! Hmm.