St Sebastian

religious

In its original position in a chapel in Santa Maria di Brera, this fresco had greater visual impact, with the archers appearing illusionistically before the spectator as if they had come out from behind the wall. For this reason the painting was admired and praised by art historians beginning with Lomazzo in the sixteenth century. Today the work appears somewhat laboured, the figures anatomically and physiognomically overdone, and the broad composition perhaps a little vacuous.

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About the Artist

Vincenzo Foppa

1427 – 1515

Italian painter, the leading figure in Lombard painting until the arrival of Leonardo da Vinci in Milan in 1481/2. He was born and died in Brescia, but was active mainly in Milan. According to Vasari he obtained his training in Padua, and his robust style owed much to Mantegna, not least in his interest in perspective. His major works include frescos in S. Eustorgio, Milan, and Sta Maria del Carmine, Brescia.

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