It depicts St. Sebastian lashed to bare tree with his right arm bent at side, and his left arm raised. The relics are contained in a glazed panel. According to a Latin inscription on the base, it was commissioned by a monastery near Augsburg during a time when the monastery was suffering from plague. The Roman soldier, St Sebastian was frequently invoked as a protector against the plague.

Provenance

Commissioned for the Monastery of Kaisheim, Germany; probably sold following he secularisation of the monastery in 1802-3; Prince Soltykoff, Paris, 1861; Baron Achille Seillière, Paris, 1901; Sir Julius Werner; thence by descent; Christie's, 2