The Arrows
Sebastian bound and pierced, and Roch showing his wound — the two saints a city prayed to when plague arrived.
Sebastian, tied to a column and stuck with arrows, and Roch, lifting his tunic to show the sore on his thigh, are the two saints a city commissioned when plague arrived. The arrow was read as the disease striking from above, and Sebastian survived his; that survival is the reason he is on so many altarpieces in so many plague years. The images are votive before they are decorative — they were paid for in an emergency.
The Martirydom of Saint Sebastian
Antonio del Pollaiolo
Saint Sebastian in a Landscape
Camille Corot
Saint Sebastian
Camille Corot
Enthroned Madonna, Saint Jerome, and St. Sebastian
Carlo Crivelli
The Apotheosis of Saint Roch
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
Saint Roch
Guido Reni
The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian
Guido Reni
Saint Sebastian
Gustave Moreau
Saint Sebastian and His Executioners
Gustave Moreau
Saint Sebastian being Tended by Saintly Women
Gustave Moreau
Saint Sebastian Attended by Saint Irene
Jusepe de Ribera
Altar polyptych of San Bartolomeo, Bergamo, main panel: Enthroned Madonna with Angels and Saints - Alexander of Bergamo, Barbara, Roch, Dominic
Lorenzo Lotto
Enthroned Madonna with Angels and Saints, St. Catherine of Alexandria and St. Augustine on the left, St. Sebastian and St. Anthony the Abbot on the right
Lorenzo Lotto
Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian
Paolo Veronese