How does Saint Sebastian (Preti) elucidate its Description?
The scene, which has a clear Caravaggesque influence, depicts the saint tied to a pole and pierced by arrows, following the death sentence inflicted on him as a Christian by emperor Diocletian. The pose of Saint Sebastian emphasizes the Pretian style of the figures taken foreshortened, in transversal projection, to give more momentum and depth to the composition, elements already adopted in previous works such as his San Nicola di Bari or his San Giovanni Battista, but here they find the apex of realization for their quality and style. Unlike the two paintings of San Domenico Soriano, where the first sees a luministic effect dominated by the yellow color scheme, and the second by a red one, in this work, which is chronologically slightly later, there is a prevalence of the silvery gray hue, a detail also found in the immediately following works to this, like the Return of the Prodigal Son, in the version of the Royal Palace of Naples, and which more generally will accompany the whole mature phase of the Calabrian painter.Roberto Longhi in 1913 defined the work as a "masterpiece of an isolated figure", highlighting precisely the particular construction of the scene: "(...) I do not know a single figure where the construction created by the seventeenth century is expressed with greater clarity and success ".
Saint Sebastian Naples Diocletian Roberto Longhi Royal Palace of Naples Caravaggesque