How you can use this image

This image can be used for non-commercial research or private study purposes, and other UK exceptions to copyright permitted to users based in the United Kingdom under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, as amended and revised. Any other type of use will need to be cleared with the rights holder(s).

Review the copyright credit lines that are located underneath the image, as these indicate who manages the copyright (©) within the artwork, and the photographic rights within the image.

The collection that owns the artwork may have more information on their own website about permitted uses and image licensing options.

Review our guidance pages which explain how you can reuse images, how to credit an image and how to find images in the public domain or with a Creative Commons licence available.

Buy a print or image licence

You can purchase this reproduction

If you have any products in your basket we recommend that you complete your purchase from Art UK before you leave our site to avoid losing your purchases.

Order a print

Notes

Add or edit a note on this artwork that only you can see. You can find notes again by going to the ‘Notes’ section of your account.

This elegant and rather haughty young man dressed in fifteenth-century fashion is in fact an early Christian saint and martyr. Sebastian was a Roman soldier who secretly converted to Christianity and was executed for his faith by the Emperor Diocletian. He comes from the upper level of a large polyptych (a multi-panelled altarpiece) painted by Giorgio Schiavone possibly for the church of San Niccolò in Padua; other panels are also in the National Gallery’s collection. We don't know the original order of the panels but this saint must have been on the right, looking inwards. Saint Sebastian was very popular in the Middle Ages as he was believed to give protection from the plague. He holds an arrow, the symbol associated with him. According to his legend when his faith was discovered he was shot full of arrows.