The Passions of Christ and St. Sebastian
Late 15th century?
Fresco
Parish church in Leboreiro. Galicia, Spain
The upper register shows the scourging of Christ at the pillar by a Roman soldier dressed like a Spaniard of the late 15th century.
In the lower register we see on the right the martyrdom of St. Sebastian, pierced by arrows. As usual, he is pictured naked except for a twist of cloth at the hips. Like the soldier in the flagellation panel above, the archers are in contemporary dress.
In the lower left panel a haloed woman extends her right hand to another figure. Her mantle appears to be blue and her robe red, the traditional colors of the Virgin Mary's garments. She stands not in the heavens above the second figure, as Mary would in apparitions, but on a tiled floor at the same level. The image therefore might represent Mary's visit to her cousin Elizabeth (Luke 1:39-45), although that would be an odd complement for the tortures in the other panels.
Read more about images of St. Sebastian.
Read more about images of the scourging of Jesus.
Read more about images of the Visitation.
Photographed at the church by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.