Josse Lieferinxe’s paining Saint Sebastian Destroying the Idols is a European painting that displays neoclassicist qualities. Lieferinxe depicts a scene from Ancient Rome, a popular theme during the 1700 and 1800’s. The people in the paintings are very realistic and the viewer cannot see a paint brush stroke anywhere within the painting.
Lieferinxe uses natural and basic colors in Saint Sebastian Destroying the Idols, he mainly uses black, brown, and white. The two spots where Lieferinxe uses red, are on the Saint Sebastian and the other man in the background. When first viewing the painting, the eye is immediately draw to Saint Sebastian. There are a few things that make Saint Sebastian the emphasis of the painting. First is the red on the front of his cape. The red is a contrast to the browns and whites surrounding it. In the foreground, he is the largest object to the viewer, which makes him stand out the most.
The repetition of the tiles draws the viewer’s eyes to the floor, and the viewer’s eye follows the direction of the floor and to man standing nonchalantly in the background. As the viewer looks at the unconcerned man, one sees what appears to be a women reaching out in almost distress to the angel like figure above her. Then the viewer wonders where Saint Sebastian is and what he is doing.
If one was to write a narrative of Josse Lieferinxe’s Saint Sebastian Destroying the Idols, one story could be from the prospective of the calm man in the corner and what they are doing, which looks like something that is immoral. Saint Sebastian is standing the darkness of the room knocking down Godly idols.
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