Studio per “Estasi di San Sebastiano”, 2022

On the hidden forehead and on the torso of the male figure based on Bronzino’s Saint Sebastian, diagonal lines evoke the arrows that pierce the body, a characteristic of the Saint’s iconography. The figure holds in its hand a white tondo, tangent to a group of planets. At the upper right, another white tondo inscribes a celestial body. The choice of a sheet of purple paper, as well as the purple tone of the Saint Sebastian both bestow an extra-temporal dimension on the composition, in line with the astronomical domain.
The key to interpretation is provided by the title: by recalling the iconography of Saint Sebastian’s body pierced by arrows, the martyr is transformed into a stand-in for the artist, who, in the constantly renewed attempt to see or fix an ineffable dimension, finds himself “in ecstasy” and a “martyr” of his own illusions at the same time.