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

Attributed to Giovanni Biliverti Italian
1585–1644
Not on view
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.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Two Women Annointing the Wounds of Saint Sebastian (recto); Study of a Nude Male Figure (verso)
  • Artist: Attributed to Giovanni Biliverti (Italian, Florence 1585–1644 Florence)
  • Date: 1585–1644
  • Medium: Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash, over black chalk (recto); red chalk (verso); squared in red chalk
  • Dimensions: 12 3/16 x 8 15/16in. (31 x 22.7cm)
  • Classification: Drawings
  • Credit Line: Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1947
  • Object Number: 47.155.2
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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