BABUREN, Dirck van
(b. ca. 1595, Wijk bij Duurstede, d. 1624, Utrecht)

St Sebastian Attended by St Irene and Her Maid

c. 1615
Oil on canvas, 169 x 128 cm
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

This painting exhibits Caravaggesque tendencies: the artist creates the scene with a strong and artificial chiaroscuro which lights up the body of St Sebastian and the upper bodies of St Irene and her maid, leaving the rest of the pictorial plane in shadow. Only in the foreground can we make out the slain saint's armour.