Saint Sebastian
Author: Unknown
Date: 15th century
Material: Polychromed limestone
Dimensions (cm): H 100 x W 23 x D 25
Provenance: Unknown
Owner: Lisbon, Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Collection of Comandante Ernesto Vilhena
Inventory No.: MAS ED 68
Sculpture representing Saint Sebastian tied to a trunk, lacking the arrows of his martyrdom. He was a Roman centurion who became a Christian and who, by order of the emperor Diocletian, was arrested and sentenced to be the target of the army archers.
He was adopted as the protective saint against the plague, as the wounds caused by this epidemic resemble the ones inflicted by the arrows.