Saints Sebastian, Anthony and Roch 1480 - 1561

Jean Duvet created this engraving, Saints Sebastian, Anthony, and Roch, in the 16th century, a time marked by religious upheaval and plague outbreaks. Duvet intertwines the sacred with the visceral. Saint Sebastian, known for his resilience against plague, stands front and center, his body a study in Renaissance ideals of male beauty. Beside him, Saint Anthony, with his symbolic pig, and Saint Roch, reveal the era’s complex relationship with faith and healing. There is an angel above them who seems to touch the halo of Saint Sebastian as the young boy and dog at the bottom right reach toward Saint Roch. The choice of these saints speaks volumes about the anxieties of the period, as they were all invoked against disease. Duvet’s distinctive style, characterized by dense lines and a somewhat crude rendering, diverges from the refined aesthetics of his contemporaries. The image is less about idealized perfection and more about the human condition. It is about the collective yearning for divine intervention in the face of relentless epidemics.