LOCATION: Aosta, Cathedral, window nIX

DIMENSIONS: lancet window composed by 2 panels; h. 175 cms. x w. 85 cms.

PROVENANCE: original location

CHRONOLOGY: beginning of the XVI century

AUTHORS: local school

PATRONAGE: 

SUBJECT: St. Sebastian, martyr (287?). He was an early Christian martyr who became popular in the Medieval and Renaissance periods. Saint Sebastian served as a soldier in the Roman army, but he was discovered to be a Christian and so was sentenced to death by Emperor Diocletian. Tortured, shot at with arrows, eventually done to death with stones. The story is taken from the ‘Golden Legend’. Protector against plague. He is shown here naked and tied to a tree, with long fair hair and arrows penetrating his body. Blue sky and sea in the background. Rich border with floral motifs.

CRITICAL NOTES: the stained glass window is noteworthy for its landscape and the admirably designed and observed figure in the middle..

CONDITIONS: the stained glass window is sadly damaged, darkened (at the bottom) and much restored. Various stop-gaps, modern tesseras, mending leads. The grisaille of the head and the body is almost completely effaced.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: see Bibl. Aosta Cathedral .

PHOTOGRAPHIC REFERENCE: photographic files Emanuela Linda Cappa (Photo Domenico Grossi, Aosta, March 1998)

EDITOR: Emanuela Linda Cappa, May 2003