Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian (Semitecolo)

The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian (Martirio di San Sebastiano or Saettatura di San Sebastiano), once part of the Saint Sebastian altarpiece, is a tempera on wood painting by Nicolò Semitecolo dated to 1367. The painting is currently on display at the Diocesan Museum of Padua together with six other tablets from the same artist. Before being separated, all the tablets were part of a bigger art piece located inside Padua Cathedral. The initial composition of the tablets within the altarpiece is still being debated among scholars.

History
The Saettatura (Shooting of Arrows) tablet is the only one signed by Semitecolo and stands as an important source of information. The complete artwork is composed of six tables, four of which depict Saint Sebastian's martyrdom, including the Saettatura. The others are:

While the two remaining tablets depict:
 * the Judgement
 * the Caning
 * the Deposition
 * the Holy Trinity
 * the Madonna of Humility

Initially the Judgment, the Holy Trinity and the Saettatura must have all been painted on both sides of the tablet, now the only remaining tablet painted on both sides is the ''Saettatura. The back, flipped upside-down, depicts Saint Daniel'' on a red background. Currently there are more than the six original pieces due to the separation and alterations of the art piece and of the single tablets. When exactly these alterations were made is unknown, however, the notebook of the Sacresty from 1534, which reports on a "Pala lignea Altaris Sti. Sebastiani", which could refer to S. Sebastian art piece. This piece of evidence could indicate that the six tablets were located on St. Sebastian Altar, although, due to it being dismantled between 1550 and 1574, there is no certain proof.

The dismantlement of the art piece not only makes the original disposition unclear, but has also caused the dispersion of the single tablets and their reconnection might not be finished in the near future. The two tablets cut in half in thickness, the Judgment and the Holy Trinity, are separated from their original back side. It can be hypothesized that their back represented another Saint Sebastian and a Christ flanked by Mary and St. John Evangelist.

The back side tablets, despite the extensive damages, still show some joining points: St. Sebastian 's tablet still shows a piece on Mary's cloak, making likely the connection between the tablets and making the reconstruction of the piece a little easier. During the XVIII century all the tablets were mentioned: four of them, the ones representing the martyrdom are mentioned in 1776 by Rossetti in its description of Padua, the Trinity and the Madonna of Humility are mentioned in 1795 by Pietro Brandolese. The discussion among scholars begins in 1927 when the St. Sebastian, the back side tablet of the Judgment, resurfaced and made clear that the tablets were divided in half. The last tablet to resurface from the private market in 1978 was the Christ flanked by Mary and St. John, displayed at the Art Venitien en Suisse et au Liechtenstein exhibition.

Description
The four tablets depicting Saint Sebastian focus mainly on the long martyrdom of the saint, rather than his posthumous miracles. The body of the suffering saint is emphasized by depicting it much bigger than the other figures, and through gruesome and bloody depictions of the episodes of his death. The four tablets are also set in a specific sequence by the background architecture on a gold background, except for the Trinity and the Madonna of Humility which have a simple gold background. The back side tablets have a red background.

Iconography
To better understand the iconographic choices, it is necessary to take into consideration the historical context of Padua in the second half of the XIV century. The XIV century was characterized by the transition from a communal form of government to a seigneural power of the Carrara's family, which caused political conflicts with other confining states and internal strifes. The already complicated political situation was worsened by waves of plague, which affected mostly the younger generation not yet immune to the disease, causing approximately 40. 000 deaths in the city. This specific historic moment could explain the choice to represent St. Sebastian, the protector from infectious diseases, on the reliquary. Saint Sebastian became known as the protector from infectious diseases around the seventh century, when the city of Ravenna was hit by the plague and the city of Rome sent a relic of the Saint as a form of aid. Another possibility as to why this type of depiction was chosen, might be due to the similarities between the saint's wounds caused by his martyrdom and the wounds the plague would leave on its victims. The iconographic choice to represent a saint who suffered the same pain as Padua's population allowed the beholders to identify with someone who could protect and intercede for the city in such a difficult moment.

We have no certain sources about the patrons, but the political context suggests that it could have been the Carrara, the seigneural family, in an attempt to ensure their spot in paradise, to demonstrate their o wealth and to strengthen the link between the family's power and the church's power.

Lithurgical use
After the last tablet was discovered in 1978 a new hypothesis was formulated regarding the reconstruction of the art piece. It's suggested that the tablets could have decorated a caspa-reliquiarum, although, it is not a widely accepted theory, it may be compatible with the correct disposition of the tablets. The closed caspa would have shown the Judgement, the Saettatura and the Holy Trinity, the Caning, the Deposition and the Madonna of Humility, and the tablets with Saint Sebastian, Saint Daniel and Christ flanked by Mary and St. John Evangelist with the red background would have been visible only when the caspa was opened.

Another possible reconstruction was the collocation over the altar of the six tablets representing the Saint in two rows of three tablets each, to cover a niche containing the relics, which could be opened to show the relics and the tablets with the red background.

Placement inside the Duomo
The exact placement inside the Duomo is unknown, but the most likely locations are the sacristy or St. Sebastian altar:


 * The sacristy: The placement inside the sacristy seems to be the most likely considering the use of the art work as a relic holder. If it were placed in the sacristy it would have been accessible only to the Duomo's priests and to members of high society.
 * Saint Sebastian's altar: some sources report the existence of an altarpiece which could have had a double use as a relic holder, and would have been opened on special occasions or celebrations in which the showing of the relics would have been fundamental to the religious narration.